"Trying to wash its hands off", Foreign Secy Vikram Misri highlights Pakistan's involvement in terrorism

New Delhi [India], May 8 (ANI): Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Thursday cornered Pakistan over its attempts to "wash its hands off" from terrorism and highlighted several instances of the involvement of the neighbouring country in spreading terror.
Addressing a Ministry of External Affairs joint press briefing in New Delhi, the Foreign Secretary noted the relationship of Osama Bin Laden to Pakistan and other United Nations proscribed terrorists.
"Pakistan is trying to wash its hands off any involvement with terrorism. I think the Pakistani Information Minister said there are no terrorists in Pakistan, and I think he was challenged on that in the television program that he was appearing on," Misri said.
Further, Misri during the briefing displayed a photograph of Pakistan army personnel attending the funeral of terrorists killed in the Indian military strikes under Operation Sindoor and said that it is "odd that the funerals of civilians are carried out with the coffins being draped in Pakistani flags and state honours being accorded".

"... It's also odd that funerals of civilians are being carried out with coffins wrapped in their national flag, and state honours are being accorded. The individuals eliminated at these facilities were terrorists. Giving state funerals to terrorists may be a practice in Pakistan, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to us..." he said.
"We have made the point very clearly that all attacks on the morning of May 7 were against carefully selected terrorist infrastructure, terrorist targets. In fact, seeing some of the coverage of the after effects of these strikes, including the funerals for the terrorists that are held yesterday, I think a lot of you have seen the reports and the coverage on media".
"If only civilians, if any civilians were killed in these attacks, I wonder what message this picture actually sends to all of you. This is a question that is worth asking," Misri stated.
To claims that India deliberately attacked religious sites, Vikram Misri said, the allegation is "completely false".
"Yesterday, Pakistan launched a targeted attack on the Sikh community of J&K- hitting a gurdwara in Poonch and hitting the Sikh community members, who came under attack. Three individuals were killed in the attacks... A total of 16 civilians have been killed in Poonch and several others have been injured," he said.
"I think Pakistan's reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism is rooted in a number of instances where concrete evidence is available, not just to India, but to governments and authorities and agencies around the world. There are several terrorists attacks around the world where Pakistan's fingerprint has been found. I don't think I need to put the point in regards to this audience about where Osama Bin Laden was found and who called him a martyr," he added.
Misri also exposed Pakistan for claiming that the terrorist Sajid Mir was dead and later claiming that he was arrested.
"They claim that the terrorist Sajid Mir was dead, came under pressure, and Sajid Mir was then brought back to life, arrested and is now apparently in Pakistani custody. Pakistan is also home to very large number of UN proscribed terrorists as well as terrorists proscribed by others," the Foreign Secretary said.
"You must have seen in the last few days, their Defence minister and former foreign minister accepted their country's involvement with such terror groups," Misri said.
Further, Misri expressed a lack of confidence in Pakistan in their willingness of an investigation following the April 22 attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.
"So in all of this, I think the experience has not been positive, and it certainly doesn't give us the confidence now to take at face value Pakistani assertions of wishing to participate in a joint investigation," Misri said.
Misri also accused Pakistan of giving state funerals to terrorists eliminated under Operation Sindoor.
Early on May 7 morning, India executed a coordinated assault using long-range high-precision strike weapons, destroying nine sites in Pok and deep inside Pakistan in an operation codenamed 'Sindoor'. Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets on the night of May 7.
Over 100 terrorists were eliminated in a series of precision strikes, according to sources. The operation, aimed at avenging the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed, remains underway, making it challenging to provide an exact casualty count of the terrorists at this stage, sources further stated.
Following the operation, military targets were engaged in Northern and Western India, including Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, using drones and missiles.
These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS Grid and Air Defence systems. The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks.
Indian Air Force S-400 Sudarshan Chakra air defence missile systems were fired last night against targets moving towards India. The targets were successfully neutralised in the operation, multiple domain experts told ANI. An official Government confirmation is awaited.
This morning, the Indian Armed Forces targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. Indian response has been in the same domain with same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised. (ANI)