Pakistan terms PSX attack 'state-sponsored terrorism', alerts world to India's activities

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Foreign Office said Monday the terrorist attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) earlier in the day was "externally-supported", "highly condemnable", and "another manifestation of the state-sponsored terrorism being perpetrated against" Islamabad.

In a statement issued Monday evening, the Foreign Office said the country's law enforcement agencies successfully foiled the terrorist attack and that all four terrorists involved in the attempted attack were killed in the encounter.

"Four of our valiant law enforcement personnel embraced martyrdom," the statement added. "The externally-supported cowardly attack is another manifestation of the state-sponsored terrorism being perpetrated against Pakistan, which is highly condemnable."

In addition, the Foreign Office went on to explain how the country has been persistently apprising and sensitising the global fraternity about threats from India and its Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government "to use terrorism as a tool to destabilize Pakistan".

"Pakistan has already shared with the international community, incriminating evidence about the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW’s involvement in terrorist activities in Pakistan," it added.

"The comments made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about the Karachi attack represent nothing but obfuscation and denial. India’s sophistry, however, cannot hide India’s complicity in acts of terrorism against Pakistan.

"The international community must take immediate cognizance of India’s use of state-terrorism to destabilize neighbouring countries," it said further.

Qureshi 'knew India's intentions'

Later, Qureshi — while speaking to Hamid Mir, a senior political commentator and the host of Geo News talk show Capital Talk — said: "The powers that want to see chaos in Pakistan are lying in wait in a focused manner.

"Their own country has numerous challenges and the conditions in occupied Kashmir are deteriorating. India faced an embarrassing defeat on the border with China.

"India itself is facing chaos and is on the brink of turmoil. Despite a strict lockdown, the infections and deaths [from the coronavirus] are rising there," he added.

Qureshi stressed that a terrorist attack was launched in Karachi at a time when Budget 2020-21 was being debated in order to destabilise the government. "I knew India's intentions and I knew what they wanted to do," he said, terming it "a huge success" that Pakistani soldiers thwarted the terrorists' intentions.

‘State-sponsored terrorism’

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf also hinted earlier in the day that India might be behind this attack, saying "Pakistan's enemy is naked in its aggression".

“The world must wake up to suicidal tendencies of this destabilizing actor that is finding distractions to overcome its own failures and embarrasment," Yusuf had said on Twitter.

"Our warnings have come true repeatedly. Whether on demographic re-engineering in #Kashmir or sponsored terrorism against Pakistan,” he added.

The special assistant had also urged the international community to publicly call out and condemn countries that perpetrated terrorism against Pakistan.

“There is an established link b/w BLA, an int’l listed terror org, and India, a state led by fascist govt that has again perpetrated terrorism in Pakistan through its proxies.”