–We had agreed on poverty alleviation, peace efforts during 2015 meeting, says premier
–PM says ‘peace remains elusive due to elections in India’
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday responded to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments and assured him that he stands by his words that if India provides Pakistan with “actionable intelligence” regarding the February 14 attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pulwama, his government will ” act immediately”.
On Saturday, Modi had asked PM Imran to keep his word as a Pathan and fight poverty and illiteracy together with India instead of fighting each other.
PM Imran reiterated Pakistan’s desire to see stability in the region, saying Modi should “give peace a chance”, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“In my meeting with PM Modi in December 2015, we had agreed that since poverty alleviation is a priority for our region, we would not allow any terrorist incident to derail peace efforts, however long before Pulwama, these efforts were derailed in September 2018. Sadly, now peace remains elusive due to elections in India”, said the prime minister.
On Saturday, speaking at a public meeting in Tonk in Rajasthan where his party lost the state assembly to the Congress party recently, denounced the attacks on Kashmiri citizens in different parts of India. His comforting comments came four days after the Supreme Court directed state chief secretaries to stop the mobs from attacking Kashmiri citizens.
“Pakistan got its new prime minister, who everyone knew as a cricketer. I called him to greet him as a matter of protocol. I said to him, Prime Minister India and Pakistan have fought several times. It hasn’t done your country any good. Why don’t we fight poverty and illiteracy together. The prime minister agreed and assured me: ‘I am the son of a Pathan and I speak the truth…will always be true to my words.’ The time has come to see if Khan will stand by his words.”
Denouncing the attacks on Kashmiris, Modi said the fight was for Kashmir, not against Kashmiris.
He further said that children of Kashmir are troubled by terrorists. “Every child of Kashmir is troubled by terrorists, he also is ready to come with us to end terrorism, we need to keep him with us.”
The Indian PM said that when Hindu devotees going to Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir were attacked, Muslims of Kashmiri and the valley’s people had enthusiastically stood in queues to donate blood to them. He added that it is the duty of every citizen in India to protect Kashmiris living in any corner of the country.
Expressing his condolences to the families of the Pulwama attack, the prime minister said, “Not just India, the entire world is with you.”
Modi praised the security forces for killing alleged militants India claims were the mastermind of the Pulwama attack.
He also targeted Congress for its attack on the government over the Pulwama suicide bombing. “It is sad to see a few people speaking in the language of Pakistan while residing in India. These are the same people who will visit Pakistan and request them to do anything to overthrow the Modi government,” he said. “These are the same people who failed to take any concrete steps to curb terrorism after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.”
