Islamabad | Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday said nobody can browbeat the country for the brutal Pulwama terror attack even as he offered to fully cooperate in any probe into the incident if India shares any evidence with it.
Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five others critically injured when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle laden with explosives into their bus in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday.
The Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy of 78 vehicles that was on its way from Jammu to Srinagar.
Qureshi, in a recorded a video message from Germany where he is attending the Munich Security Conference, claimed that India, without investigation, in a knee-jerk reaction, blamed Pakistan for the attack. “It is easy to blame Pakistan but it will not solve the problem and the world will not be convinced,” he said in the message which was released by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on its official Twitter account.
He said nobody can browbeat Pakistan by blaming it for the attack. “We know how to defend ourselves. We can also present out point of view across the world. Our message is peace and not conflict,” Qureshi said.
In a strong warning to Pakistan over the Pulwama terror attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday declared those responsible will pay a “very heavy price” and said the security forces have been given a free hand to decide on the timing, place and nature of their response to the carnage. “A befitting reply will be given to the perpetrators of the heinous attack and their patrons,” Modi asserted.
Qureshi said Pakistan was ready to fully cooperate with India if it shares evidence. “If India has any evidence (about the involvement of elements in Pakistan in the Pulwama attack), it should share with us. We will investigate with full honesty and see if it was right. And I say with full confidence that we will cooperate. Because we do not want disturbance,” he said.
Condemning the incident, the foreign minister said, “Violence neither was, nor is our policy.”
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