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Foreign Office spokesperson says P.M. Khan will visit China in first week of February to attend opening ceremony of 2022 Winter Olympics
Pakistan on Thursday warned there was a “real possibility” of India staging a “false flag operation” to “complicate” the prevailing situation between the neighboring nations.
“There is a real possibility that India might stage another false flag operation to complicate the current situation,” Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar told a weekly news briefing in Islamabad. “So we continue to alert our friends in the international community about this prospect,” he added.
The spokesperson also denied the “fallacious comments” of the Indian army chief at a press conference a day earlier. In his annual press briefing, Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane had claimed that “launch pads” and “training camps” of extremists existed across the Line of Control. Iftikhar said it was nothing new for India to voice unfounded allegations.
“These are a part of the malicious anti-Pakistan propaganda being peddled by the BJP-RSS [Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] combine at the helm in India,” he said. “The Indian government is driven by its belligerent and expansionist agenda embedded in the delusional notion of ‘Akhand Bharat,’ which poses a grave threat to regional peace,” he said, adding that the Indian army chief’s statement appeared to be an attempt to divert global attention from Delhi’s state-terrorism and human rights violations in India-held Kashmir.
“Pakistan calls on India to forthwith halt its tyranny in the IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir], renounce its campaign of persecution of Kashmiris, and let them exercise their right to self-determination as promised to them under the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions,” he said, and urged the international community to take immediate notice of Delhi’s activities in the disputed territory.
The spokesperson said Pakistan was committed to pursuing meaningful dialogue with India for peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir. “The onus is, however, on India to create an enabling environment conducive for dialogue,” he added.
Iftikhar also confirmed that Prime Minister Imran Khan would visit China in the first week of February at the invitation of the Chinese leadership to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics.