Pakistan responds to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remarks on terrorism

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In response to Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s remarks on terrorism where he said that “If they [terrorists] run away to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan to kill them (Pakistan mein ghus ke marenge),” Pakistan on April 6 said that the Indian government “habitually resorts to hateful rhetoric to fuel hyper-nationalistic sentiments, unapologetically exploiting such discourse for electoral gains.”

In an interview to a television channel Mr. Singh responded to a question on an article published in The Guardian that said India had carried out the execution of almost 20 terrorists since 2020 inside Pakistan. “If any terrorist tries to disturb the peace in Bharat, or tries to carry out terror activities in Bharat, we will give them a befitting reply (muh tod jawab),” he said.

Denouncing his remarks, Pakistan brought up their claims of “India’s campaign of extrajudicial and transnational assassinations on Pakistani soil” citing evidence they had provided in January this year.

“India’s assertion of its preparedness to extra-judicially execute more civilians, arbitrarily pronounced as “terrorists”, inside Pakistan constitutes a clear admission of culpability. It is imperative for the international community to hold India accountable for its heinous and illegal actions,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

“India’s ruling dispensation habitually resorts to hateful rhetoric to fuel hyper-nationalistic sentiments, unapologetically exploiting such discourse for electoral gains,” it added.

In January, in response to Pakistan Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi’s claims that India had carried out two extra-judicial killings, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had termed it Pakistan’s “latest attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda.” Stating that Pakistan has long been the epicentre of terrorism, organised crime, and illegal transnational activities, the spokesperson added that to “blame others for its own misdeeds can neither be a justification nor a solution.”

The Ministry of External Affairs has declined to comment on whether Mr. Singh’s statement was at odds with the MEA position, as quoted in the article, that the allegations were false.