Whole world knows Pakistan’s role in supporting terrorism: MEA

India conveys serious concern to Saudi over ‘gross misrepresentation’ of its external boundaries

30/10/2020

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: The whole world knows about Pakistan's role in supporting terrorism and no amount of denial can hide this truth, India said on Thursday in a sharp reaction to Islamabad's objection to references to it and cross-border terrorism in the Indo-US joint statement after their 2+2 dialogue.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the country that provides shelter to "maximum number of UN-proscribed terrorists" should not even attempt to play the victim card.
"The whole world knows truth about Pakistan's role in supporting terrorism," he said at a media briefing while answering questions on Islamabad's reaction to the Indo-US joint statement.
"Even their leaders have time and again spoken about their role with regard to terrorism," Srivastava said.
In the joint statement, India and the US on Tuesday strongly condemned cross-border terrorism in all its forms and asked Pakistan to take "immediate, sustained and irreversible" action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terror attacks. In its reaction, Pakistan on Wednesday called it "unwarranted" the reference made towards it.
"We reject the Pakistan-specific reference in the joint statement', issued by India and the US after their 2+2 ministerial dialogue," the Pakistan Foreign Office had said in its reaction.
Asked about Pakistan's objection to changes in the land laws in Jammu and Kashmir, Srivastava said it is an internal matter of India and no country has any locus standi to comment on it.
As per amended law, any person from outside Jammu and Kashmir can now buy land in the Union territory.
"You would be aware that the government has taken a number of measures in recent time for socio-economic development and improvement of livelihood in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India.
"Therefore, these decisions relate to internal affairs of India. No country has any locus standi to comment on it," he said.
India has conveyed its serious concern to Saudi Arabia over "gross misrepresentation" of its external territorial boundaries in a banknote issued by the Gulf nation last week, and asked it to take "urgent corrective steps", the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.
The global map printed on the new 20 Riyal banknote, released to mark Saudi Arabia's presidency of the G20 grouping, does not feature Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as part of India.
MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India has asked Saudi Arabia to take "urgent corrective steps" in the matter, and asserted that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral parts of the country.
"We have seen the banknote referred by you which gives an incorrect depiction of India's external territorial boundaries. The note was issued by Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on October 24 to mark the occasion of Saudi presidency of the G20," Srivastava said during a weekly media briefing.
"We have conveyed our serious concern to Saudi Arabia, both through their Ambassador in New Delhi as well as in Riyadh, for this gross misrepresentation of India's external territorial boundaries on an official and legal banknote of Saudi Arabia & asked the Saudi side to take urgent corrective steps in this regard," he said.
Srivastava said, "I would like to further reiterate that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral parts of India."
According to reports, the map does not even depict Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir including Gilgit-Baltistan as part of Pakistani territory.
Pakistan considers Saudi Arabia as a key ally, and exclusion of the PoK from the map of Pakistan is seen by many in Islamabad as a major snub to the country.

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