New Delhi: India on Friday revealed that the Pakistan government was asked to probe the breach of security due to the appearance of a drone over the compound of the Indian high commission in Islamabad. Pakistan immediately dismissed the Indian claim as “preposterous”.
In an answer to a query at the weekly online briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that a drone had been spotted over the premises of the Indian high commission in Islamabad on June 26.
“This has been officially taken up with the government of Pakistan. We expect Pakistan to investigate the incident and prevent recurrence of such breach of security,” he said.
The incident takes place against the backdrop of a drone attack on the Jammu Air Force Station on June 27, which has led to concerns about similar modus operandi being employed for other attacks.
There were two low-intensity explosions, both of them taking place within six minutes of each other. The first blast hit the roof of a building at the airport in the station, while the second one exploded on the ground.
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Earlier, India’s junior home minister G. Kishan Reddy had stated that Pakistan’s role cannot be ruled out in the drone attack on the Air Force station. The Pakistan foreign ministry rejected the allegations by the Indian minister, and described the statement as “irresponsible and misleading”.
At the weekly briefing, the MEA was more cautious about pointing fingers at Pakistan over the Jammu drone attack or linking it to the Indian high commission incident.
“Regarding the Jammu Air Force station case, the investigation is in progress,” Bagchi said in reply to multiple questions.
Following the Indian statement, Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri stated, “These preposterous claims have no basis in facts, and no proof whatsoever has been shared with Pakistan to substantiate these allegations”.
He then asserted that India was behind the bomb blast in a residential colony in Lahore, which took place near the house of jailed Jamaat-ud-Dawaa supremo Hafiz Saeed.
“Curiously, this propaganda campaign by India is also happening at a time when evidence so far collected in the Lahore blast of June 23 is increasingly pointing to external forces with a history of perpetrating state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan,” said Chaudhari. He also reiterated solidarity with Kashmiris in the same statement.
A week after the global terrorism financing watchdog kept Pakistan on its ‘grey list’, India stated that all countries must take credible action in stopping cross-border movement of terrorists and their financial channels.
“In this regard, we call upon Pakistan to take credible, verifiable and irreversible action against terrorist networks and proxies operating from territories under its control and to bring the perpetrators of terrorist attacks including 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot to justice,” said Bagchi.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) retained Pakistan on the grey list, as it has not fully implemented one last remaining item on the ‘action plan’. This action point on which Pakistan had not shown sufficient progress was related to the investigation and prosecution of senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups, said FATF president Marcus Pleyer.