Cornered for Role in Taliban Takeover, Pak Accuses India of 'Running ISIS Camps' to Malign Kashmiris

Pakistan on Sunday accused India of “hosting and running terror caps of ISIS” in multiple cities at home to “malign the freedom struggle of Kashmiris”.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, NSA Moeed Yusuf and human rights minister Shireen Mazari held a press conference and released a 131-page dossier against India and claimed that these “ISIS terror camps” operate in Gulmarg, Raipur, Jodhpur, Chakrata, Anupgarh and Bikaner.

Foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar alleged that “by injecting these state-trained ISIS fighters, India may try to establish linkages of the freedom movement with Taliban international terrorism in order to malign the freedom struggle of Kashmiris,” The Times of India reported.

Qureshi said that the dossier was compiled in view of India’s alleged actions after the death of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and their treatment of his family. The secessionist Hurriyat leader, who was a devout supporter of Pakistan, breathed his last on September 1 and India released a video showing his burial as per Islamic rites.

Elaborating on India’s alleged involvement in “harbouring” terrorism, NSA Yusf said that it’s part of New Delhi’s plans as a “counterweight” to China.

“We decided that considering the situation there (Jammu and Kashmir) and the kind of government’s thinking present there, we should play our role and unveil the real face of this [Indian] government claiming to be the world’s biggest democracy before the world,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi hit out at India for “continuing communications blackout” in Jammu and Kashmir as independent journalists and observers were denied access, while facts were distorted and brutalities went unreported “by design”.

Pakistan’s quest to handhold the Taliban after its hostile takeover of Afghanistan last month has set minds racing and tongues wagging. After Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Hamid Faiz was spotted in the capital Kabul a few days ago, many have said Pakistan is once again up to its meddlesome ways. While the previous regime routinely accused Pakistan of aiding the Taliban, Islamabad has denied the charge time and again.

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