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New Delhi has denied Islamabad’s allegations it is linked with the recent Jaffar Express hostage crisis
The Indian Foreign Ministry on Friday refuted Pakistan’s claims it was involved in the Balochistan train siege that took place earlier this week, labeling them as “baseless allegations.” Dozens of people were killed in an operation to free some 400 hostages from militants in the restive region.
“The whole world knows where the epicenter of global terrorism lies. Pakistan should look inwards instead of pointing fingers and shifting the blame for its own internal problems and failures onto others,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiwal said in a statement.
The war of words between New Delhi and Islamabad comes days after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) seized the Jaffar Express, a passenger train in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, on Tuesday, taking over 400 passengers hostage.
Pakistani authorities announced on Wednesday that they had ended the standoff with insurgents, rescuing 346 hostages. At least 21 hostages, as well as 33 militants, were killed in the operation, local media reported, citing officials.
The BLA is a militant organization that has been fighting for the independence of the Balochistan province from Pakistan’s central government. The group has been classified as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, as well as by the UK and the US.
Officials in Islamabad have suggested that the handlers of the attack are linked to Afghanistan while simultaneously blaming India for “sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan.”
On Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said Islamabad had evidence that calls related to the hijacking originated in Afghanistan. When asked by reporters whether Islamabad had shifted its stance from India to Afghanistan, he responded, “There is no shift in our policy. And again, the facts have not changed. India is involved in sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan. What I was referring to was, in this particular incident, we have evidence of calls being traced to Afghanistan. This is what I said.”
The day before the head of the media wing of Pakistan’s Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, in an interview with local news outlet Dunya News, criticized the “flow of misinformation” regarding the incident, particularly from India, claiming that it openly displayed the “nexus between the terrorists and their masters to the whole world.”
On Friday, Chaudhry doubled down on allegations against New Delhi. Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, he claimed that the terrorists had used both Indian and Afghan weapons in the recent incident, as well as in previous attacks. “We must understand that in this terrorist incident in Balochistan, and others before, the main sponsor is your eastern neighbor [India],” he alleged.
For its part, New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of supporting and financing terrorism, both within its own borders and in India. “Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism policy will never succeed,” Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said during his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York last year. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also condemned Pakistan for seeking funding from global financial institutions to sustain a “terrorism factory.”
