Pak PM accuses India of rejecting his peace overtures
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused India of not responding to his peace overtures and said that any war between the “two nuclear-armed countries” would be suicidal for both.
In an interview with Turkish channel TRT World, Imran said Pakistan wants dialogue with India, but New Delhi has refused Islamabad’s offer several times.
“Two nuclear armed countries should not even think of a war. Not even a cold war, because it could worsen any time. The only way is bilateral talks. Two nuclear armed countries at war is like a suicide,” he told the Turkish channel.
“India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together. India was offered to take one step towards (peace) and we shall take two. But India rejected Pakistan’s offer for talks several times,” Imran said.
Bilateral relations went cold after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2016 and India’s surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Imran also said that India would never be able to suppress the rights of the Kashmiri people.
The Pakistani premier was in Turkey last week on the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
While Imran has criticised New Delhi on several fronts of late, India, too, has reacted sharply. Last month, India called upon the Imran administration to focus more on its internal affairs.
In the latest interview, Imran praised Pakistan’s all-weather ally China for its support, saying “they have been helpful to us in areas I can’t even tell”.
When his party came to power, Imran said Pakistan was facing a record current account deficit, but “China has been a breath of fresh air” in this otherwise “gloom and doom” situation.
He said though Pakistan “was facing multiple crises, the government will meet the challenges with effective economic policies”.