Pak says India wrong, attacker not from there

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan dismissed on Wednesday an assertion by a terrorist arrested in Jammu and Kashmir that he came from across the border but analysts indicated the strike was unlikely to hurt the bilateral dialogue process.

Mohammed Naved’s arrest received little coverage in Pakistan as several experts insisted there were holes in the story.

“Yes I have heard of this arrest but it seems yet another attempt by Indian authorities to put Pakistan down,” said a foreign ministry official.

Former ambassador Zafar Hilaly said it was “too early to jump to conclusions” because the details were sketchy. The Pakistan foreign office didn’t issue a state- ment either though the matter will likely be discussed at the weekly press briefing on Thursday.

Analyst Shahzad Chaudhry said India was again coming up with cases “that had no foundation” to put pressure on Pakistan. Chaudhry said such incidents were “created to put Pakistan on the defensive.”

The Nawaz Sharif government was already playing on the back foot with regard to his policy on India because there was “no clear thinking on the matter”, he added.

But both Hilaly and Chaudhry said they did not expect talks between the two countries to be affected by the arrest.

Officials also said Pakistan would soon make an announcement about the national security adviser talks on August 23 and 24, as agreed by PMs of both nations.