New Delhi: India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), on Tuesday, issued a strong rebuttal to a statement by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the massacre by terrorists of 26 persons, mostly tourists from across the country, at the Baisaran meadows near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22.
Investigations have since revealed that the gruesome attack was masterminded in Pakistan. At least two of the terrorists involved were also Pakistanis, Indian agencies have confirmed. Despite this, the OIC has given Pakistan a clean chit and blamed India for ‘escalation’ of the situation in the region.
India has called the statement “absurd” and “politically motivated.” The MEA also blamed Pakistan for manipulating the group to push an anti-India agenda.
“The OIC statement, issued at the behest of Pakistan, is absurd in refusing to recognise the facts of the Pahalgam terrorist attack and its cross-border linkages. This is yet another attempt by Pakistan, a country that has long engaged in cross-border terrorism, to manipulate and misguide the OIC Group to issue a self-serving statement. We reject the OIC’s interference in matters that are internal to India,” the statement reads.
On Monday, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in New York issued a statement expressing “deep concern over the deteriorating security environment in South Asia.”
According to the state-run Anadolu Agency of Turkey, which is part of the OIC since its establishment, the statement also said that India’s “unfounded allegations against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” were the factor behind escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
OIC further stated that the accusations by India risk exacerbating an already volatile situation, and reiterated its “principled position against, and condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomsoever and wherever.”
The group also rejected “all attempts to associate any country, race, religion, culture or nationality with terrorism.”
