Govt criticises Pakistan for ‘glorifying’ militant Burhan
MEA spokesperson slams Sharif for paying tributes to Hizb commander killed in 2016
India on Sunday said Pakistan’s support for terrorism should be condemned by all as it criticised the neighbouring country’s army chief for glorifying Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on his first death anniversary.
Burhan was killed in a gunfight with security forces in south Kashmir on July 8 last year. His death triggered months of violent street protests in Kashmir that left 100 people, most of them civilians, dead.
Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted on Sunday: First @ForeignOfficePk read frm banned LeT’s script. Now Pak COAS glorfs Burhan Wani. Pak’s terror suprt&spnsr’p need 2b condmnd by 1 & all. He was referring to Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa’s remarks that Wani’s sacrifice was a “testimony” of his and his generation’s “resolve” against “Indian atrocities”.
Not just Bajwa, even Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid tributes to Wani, saying his death “infused a new spirit in the struggle for freedom” in Kashmir Valley.
Sharif’s eulogy came a day after PM Narendra Modi accused Pakistan of using terror as a tool to achieve political objectives and pressed for “deterrent” action by against such nations.
Addressing the G20 summit in Hamburg, Modi equated Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad to Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, saying their names might be different but their ideology was the same.
The US has declared Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist. The announcement came just hours ahead of Modi’s meeting with American President Donald Trump on June 26.
Pakistan dismissed the tagging, saying it was not a UN decision but a move by the Trump administration to “appease” India.
Salahuddin called for Hafta-eShuhuda (martyrs’ week), beginning July 7, to commemorate Wani.