KARACHI: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has declared his recent trip to India as a success, and said that the false propaganda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Muslims had been negated.
Speaking to the media in Karachi after returning from India, where he spoke at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting, Bilawal said that the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had been trying to create a myth that Muslims were terrorists.
He added that by speaking at the SCO meeting, he attempted to break this myth and debunk the false propaganda. He also expressed surprise that despite India having one of the major Muslim populations in the world, the BJP had no Muslim candidates.
Bilawal further mentioned that he did not want any Pakistani, Indian, or citizen of any other country to fall victim to terrorism, adding that people would continue to die if the issue was politicized and made part of the geopolitical game being played in the region. He said that a bipartisan approach across the geopolitical divide was needed to address terrorism.
Pakistan’s sacrifices in the fight against terrorism receive global acknowledgement
The foreign minister also said that the narrative linking terrorism with Muslims had become stale worldwide, and Pakistan’s sacrifices in the fight against terrorism had been acknowledged globally. He added that India was trying to spread another lie that United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions, bilateral agreements, and international laws held no importance.
Regarding the Kashmir issue, Bilawal said that Pakistan’s representatives continued to counter India’s narrative and one-sided message, adding that what frustrated India was the refusal of Pakistanis and Kashmiris to accept the Indian government’s actions of August 5, 2019, when it revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status.
He questioned how long India could deny international laws and UNSC resolutions or how long it could run away from a plebiscite in Kashmir, adding that a solution would eventually be found if both countries decided to chart the course of their future together.
In addition, Bilawal provided an update on Pakistan’s evacuation operations from Sudan, saying that the last batch of evacuees would arrive tonight and that the Foreign Office had successfully managed to take out all 1,050 Pakistanis from the war-torn country.
Bilawal’s trip to India seems to have been productive in terms of negating the false propaganda against Muslims and promoting a bipartisan approach to combat terrorism.
