Facing imminent India action, Pak says willing to join ‘neutral’ probe

Faced with an imminent response from Delhi, Pakistan on Saturday offered to join any “neutral and transparent” probe into the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

While addressing army cadets’ passing-out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kakul, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, “The recent tragedy in Pahalgam is yet another example of this perpetual blame game, which must come to a grinding halt. Continuing with its role as a responsible country, Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation.”

Talking about the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty by India, Shehbaz said any attempt to stop, reduce or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan would be responded to with full force and might. Shehbaz threatened to use all options if the water of its share was stopped by India. “Water is our lifeline and a vital national interest. Its availability will be safeguarded at all costs and under all circumstances,” he said. He said the entire nation stood by the armed forces of Pakistan to safeguard every inch of the homeland. “Our valiant armed forces are capable and remain fully prepared to defend the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity against any misadventure,” he said.

“Pakistan has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We have endured immense loss of over 90,000 casualties and economic losses exceeding $600 billion,” he said, adding that there cannot be a more powerful manifestation of “our commitment that we will not tolerate any kind of terrorism of any hue and colour”.

Shehbaz said he regretted that India had levelled “baseless allegations and false accusations” without a credible investigation or verifiable evidence. “Pakistan shall continue to support the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people till they achieve their rights through their great struggle and sacrifices,” Shehbaz said.

His remarks came hours after The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy outfit of Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), backtracked from its claim “unequivocally” denying its involvement in the incident in which 26 persons were gunned down by terrorists in the Baisaran meadow.

The TRF said “any attribution of this act to the TRF is false and part of an orchestrated campaign to malign the Kashmiri resistance”. It further claimed that Indian cyber intelligence has hacked its website from where the message claiming responsibility for the incident was posted.

According to sources, the development shows that the terror group — under pressure from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies like ISI — is trying to distance itself from the attack.

Among a possible fallout of this development could be that the outfit may not release the footage from body cams which were used by terrorists during the attack to record the incident. On the other hand, Pakistan, which had distanced itself from the incident, may pin the responsibility on local insurgent groups.

(With agency inputs)

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