India rejects Pakistan’s call for ‘neutral’ Pahalgam probe | India News

NEW DELHI: India has rejected Pakistan’s proposal for a “neutral” probe into the mass killings at Pahalgam by dismissing it as a deception meant to distract attention from Islamabad’s complicity in the slaughter of innocent tourists. “They are pursuing their familiar playbook of deception and duplicity.
The term ‘neutral’ is nothing but a loaded euphemism for the blatant lie that those making the offer were not complicit in the carnage. They are trying to pull the wool over the world’s eyes,” an official told TOI.

‘Move doesn’t reflect desire for justice, but is diversionary ploy’

It does not reflect a desire for justice, but is a diversionary ploy. They are trying to deflect international attention, evade scrutiny and accountability and undermine India’s right to defend its sovereignty and security.”
Another source said, “Neutrality in investigation implies a dispute over facts, but here the facts about the identity of the perpetrators and their masterminds are incontrovertible and consistent with the pattern of use of terror gangs as an instrument of proxy war. It is the Pakistani state itself that has been using terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e Mohammad to further its objectives.” Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif first spoke of “a credible and neutral probe”, and found endorsement from China. Then, US secretary of state Marco Rubio last week asked India to work together with Pakistan, raising eyebrows here.
“The focus must not be merely on individual perpetrators but on the Pakistani state that has enabled, equipped and exported terrorism. It is time for the international community to hold Pakistan accountable for not just the Pahalgam killings but also for raising and sustaining a terror infrastructure that has been responsible for killings in different countries. Falling for Pakistan’s neutrality rhetoric is a betrayal of justice for the victims of Pahalgam but also of victims of all the terror attacks that have been traced to Pakistan,” said a source, pointing to the arrests of Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh, one of the plotters of the 9/11 attack, in Pakistan.
India’s contempt for the idea of an allegedly neutral probe is rooted in the bitter experience it has had with Pakistan over the decades. Sources pointed out that Islamabad had denied any link to the 26/11 assault on Mumbai until investigation forced them to acknowledge Ajmal Kasab’s Pakistani citizenship. India agreed to a joint probe into the attack on the Pathankot airbase only to realise that Pakistan used the mechanism to stall the investigation and protect the perpetrators.
“Blaming the alleged non-state actors for the terror attacks they organise is a tactic which has no takers now. They have deployed it right since 1947, when their army regulars disguised themselves as tribal lashkars to invade J&K. It was put to use in 1965 as part of Operation Gibraltar when their soldiers masquerading as locals unsuccessfully tried to trigger an uprising; and at the time of incursions in Kargil in 1999 when their regulars and terrorists were responsible,” said a source, pointing out that no action was taken against the perpetrators of 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, 26/11 terrorist strikes and Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy despite India providing irrefutable evidence.
“Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi continue to play with impunity. The worst thing is the brazenness with which they go about this. They lied to the world that Sajid Mir, one of the masterminds of 26/11, was dead but he was found to be alive. Then they claimed that he was in jail.”