India calls Pak claims of its role as ‘absurd’

NEWDELHI:INDIA on Thursday dismissed as “absurd” Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s allegation that New Delhi was behind a terror attack on the Karachi stock exchange, saying Islamabad cannot shift the blame for its domestic problems.

Khan had told Pakistan’s Parliament on Tuesday that he had “no doubt” that India was behind Monday’s terror attack on the stock exchange building that left four security personnel dead.

All four attackers were also killed.

Khan didn’t give any evidence to back up his claim, and his remarks were a reiteration of allegations made earlier by foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. The attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army.

Asked about Khan’s allegations during a weekly media briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava

said: “India rejects these absurd comments on the terrorist attack in Karachi and Pakistan cannot shift the blame on India for its domestic problems.”

Referring to Khan’s recent description of former al-qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as a “martyr”, Srivastava added: “We would ask Pakistan that they may wish to reflect on this and on their own government’s position, including their PM’S description of a global terrorist as a martyr.”

Bin Laden was killed in the northwestern Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad during a raid by US commandoes in 2011.

In response to another question on the Indian government’s decision to ask Pakistan to reduce the strength of its high commission in New Delhi by 50% because of the alleged involvement of Pakistani officials in espionage and terror activities, Srivastava said personnel from the Indian mission in Islamabad and the Pakistani mission in New Delhi had returned home on June 30.