Pakistan has claimed that India was behind a bomb blast in Lahore in June 2021 and has briefed foreign diplomats of the same.
A day after claiming that India was involved in a blast outside Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's residence in Lahore in June last year, Pakistan on Wednesday briefed Islamabad-based foreign diplomats and conducted the press conference for the same.
On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed briefed Islamabad-based foreign diplomats while Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar addressed a press conference on the issue.
What has Pakistan claimed?
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday alleged India was behind the blast last year and that it had the evidence for it.
"Today, the matter that we are putting before you, we have evidence of India's involvement in it. We have decided to bring our stance before the world," Sanaullah said while addressing a press conference along with the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Additional Inspector General Imran Mehmood.
The blast near the residence of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in Johar Town killed three people and injured 24 others in June 2021.
Sanaullah said that the Foreign Office (FO) would raise the issue of the alleged Indian involvement before the world because culprits involved in the attack were arrested with evidence.
"There is clear evidence that it (India) is directly involved," he claimed, adding that India was supporting the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
"We also found out that close to a million dollars of terror financing was done through India to spread terrorism in Pakistan through different channels," said CTD chief Mehmood.
No country used terror better than India: Pakistan
Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed shared a "dossier" of India's alleged involvement in the blast outside Saeed's residence in Lahore on June 23 last year.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar alleged that "no country had used terrorism better than India" as she asked the international community to take note of New Delhi’s attempts to undermine Pakistan's peace and security.
She claimed that there was "undeniable, indisputable" evidence about Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistan.
"This particular effort is to bring attention to the attention of the world and to expect them and encourage them to see things based on evidence," she said.
She also confirmed that the foreign secretary invited the foreign diplomats and shared a "dossier" with them on the issue.
"This dossier, as you already know, has details, evidence...," she said. "We waited till we had strong hard evidence to be making the case we are making today."
Khar also accused India of working against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and creating unrest in the Balochistan province.
Khar alleged that India was a "rogue state" working against the UN resolutions and went on to claim that India had been paralysing the UNSC sanctions regime by blocking the listing of "Indian terrorists".
Who is Hafiz Saeed?
Saeed is the founder and head of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). It is involved in a number of other attacks and anti-India activities in addition to the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Saeed has been serving a jail sentence at the high-security Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore for his conviction in terror financing cases. The blast had sparked rumours that Saeed was present in the house.
Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty on, has been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases. His punishment is running concurrently.
Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
(With PTI inputs)
