New Delhi: India on Thursday said it will review the Most Favoured Nation status granted to Pakistan by it based on the security and trade interests, asserting that terror cannot be the commodity exported.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also said that the speech by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hailing Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani in Parliament shows Pakistan’s complicity in terrorism directed against India and was “self implicating”. Sharif had hailed Wani as “son of the Kashmiri soil” while addressing the joint session.
“Promoting shared prosperity with neighbours has been government’s priority but terror cannot be the commodity exported. We will undertake a review based on our security and trade interests,” he said when asked if India will review the MFN status given to Pakistan by India, unilaterally.
Asked about the recent conversation between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan, he said the Prime Ministers of the two countries had in January agreed that their NSAs will remain in touch and the details should not be made public. “India remains committed not to make it public.”
Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz was quoted as saying by Pakistani media that India has agreed to reduce tensions after their NSAs spoke over phone. This was first such contact after the Uri attack and India’s retaliatory surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the LoC.
Swarup also refused to react to the reports in Pakistani media that Sharif has asked the powerful military not to shield banned militant groups and directed authorities to conclude the Pathankot terror attack probe and the 2008 Mumbai attack trials.
On the reports that Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), a umbrella group of jihadi and Islamist outfits as Hafiz Saeed’s JeM, organising a rally in Pakistan on October 28, he said India has always voiced its concerns at the freedom available to such internationally designated terrorists in Pakistan to conduct and promote anti India activities openly.
“It is up to the government of Pakistan to abide by its assurances that it will deny the use of its territory for such purposes,” he added.
Asserting that Indian forces have carried out 20 successful interdictions along the LoC to foil infiltration attempts, Swarup said captured terrorists have confessed that a large number of terrorists are trained and ready to be launched in terrorists camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
He added that since July 8, close to a dozen major terrorist attacks have taken place in J&K, supported and launched from across LOC or border, including today in Handwara.
“I would also remind you of what DGMO said on September 29 that it is India’s intention to maintain peace and tranquility in the region, but we can certainly not allow the terrorists to operate across the Line of Control with impunity and attack the citizens of our country,” he added.
The Spokesperson also asserted that India has clearly conveyed to Pakistan High Commissioner to India when he was summoned after Uri attack that the government expects Pakistan to fulfill its assurances of 2004, reiterated at highest levels, not to allow territory under its control for terrorism against any country.