Islamabad blames India for terror in Pakistan

Islamabad, May 14: Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Thursday alleged that Indian foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was "involved in various terrorist activities" in his country.

During an informal interaction with journalists here, Chaudhry said RAW was involved in various terrorist activities across Pakistan, and added that the matter had been taken up "a number of times" at the highest level with India through diplomatic channels, Dawn reported.

This comes days after Pakistan's top military brass accused RAW of "supporting terrorism" in the country in an unusual instance of a Corps Commanders' Conference directly pointing fingers at another country's intelligence agency.

Despite consistently claiming that the Indian intelligence agency's hand was behind terrorism in the country, Pakistani authorities have remained uncommunicative about any proof in this regard.

Indian backing of insurgency in Balochistan was mentioned in a Pakistan-India joint statement issued after a meeting of their prime ministers in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2009, but Islama­bad failed to follow it up with concrete proof.

Earlier this year, however, Islamabad decided to take a tougher approach towards India and forcefully raised its concerns over alleged Indian involvement in acts of terrorism in the country.

The change may have been forced by New Delhi's continued terror allegations against Pakistan and for building a narrative that India was a victim of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

IANS