Agencies
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that the militant attack on the Uri military base in India could be the result of a “reaction” of the people to the situation in Kashmir as he criticized India for blaming Pakistan “without any evidence”.
“The Uri attack can be the reaction of the atrocities in Kashmir, as the close relatives and near and dear ones of those killed and blinded over the last two months were hurt and outraged,” Sharif told reporters yesterday in London where he had stopped on his way back from New York after attending the UN General Assembly session.
Sharif said India hastily blamed Pakistan without any investigation. He said India behaved in an “irresponsible way” when it blamed Pakistan “without any evidence”.
India had blamed Pakistan for the Uri attack, in which 18 soldiers died, after investigators found the four dead terrorists carrying grenades and food with Pakistani markings. The relations between the two countries, frayed since the unrest broke out in Kashmir following the death of terrorist Burhan Wani, had nosedived sharply following the Uri attack.
Earlier this week, India summoned Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit and presented to him, evidence of Pakistan’s role in the Uri attack as well as other strikes like Pathankot.
The Foreign Secretary had also told the Pakistan High Commissioner that India “is ready to provide fingerprints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in the Uri and Poonch incidents,” adding that they were now waiting for a response from Islamabad.
Sharif said the achievement of lasting peace in the region was impossible without the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
In a sharp response to Nawaz Sharif’s speech at the UN on Wednesday, in which he raised the Kashmir protests and glorified Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani, India described Pakistan as host to “the Ivy League of terrorism”.
