India slams Pakistan’s “duplicity,” demands “strong action” against JeM terrorist Masood Azhar

India has slammed Pakistan over its “duplicity” over Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar and called on Islamabad to take “strong action” against the UN-designated terrorist.

The remarks from the Ministry of External Affairs came on Friday after reports of Azhar making a public speech in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that if Masood Azhar is in Pakistan, it exposes the country’s duplicity.

“He is an UN-designated terrorist. We demand that strong action be taken against him so that he is brought to justice. There has been a denial that he is not there in Pakistan. What you are referring to, if the reports are correct then it exposes the duplicity of Pakistan. Masood Azhar is involved in cross-border terror attacks in India. We want that strong action to be taken against him,” he said in a weekly press briefing today.

Notably, JeM has been responsible for several terror incidents in India and had taken responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

In March this year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar emphasised on the complex situation of dealing with a neighbour like Pakistan, and said that Islamabad uses terrorism as an instrument of statecraft and does not even hide from the fact.

“Every country wants a stable neighbourhood…we have been unfortunate, or ill-starred to be blessed with the one we have to our west. How do you deal with a neighbour, who does not hide the fact that they use terrorism as an instrument of statecraft?” Jaishankar said at an event in Singapore.

Taking a veiled dig at Pakistan, the EAM said that in the country, terrorism exists almost at “industry level” and “assembly line”.

“It’s not a one-off, different countries at different points of time have experienced this. But, a very sustained, almost an industry level, assembly line…people whose job is to do bad things at night,” he added.

Jaishankar added that India has decided that it will have to find a way to address the problem because dodging it will only invite more trouble.”I don’t have a quick, instantaneous fix, but what I can tell you is that India will not skirt this problem anymore…if we have a problem, we must be honest enough to face up to the problem. If you have to have those discussions, we should, if it’s hard to find a solution, we must work through. We should not give the other country free pass…in India the mood is not to overlook terrorism,” the EAM said.