Pakistan Army Chief rakes up Kashmir issue, accuses India of stoking terror

In a blazing war of words between the two estranged subcontinental neighbours, Pakistan’s Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has said that Kashmir is an inseparable part of his country, and stressed that it was “an unfinished agenda of partition”.

Addressing cadets at the National Defence University in Islamabad on June 3, Mr Sharif said “Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition. Pakistan and Kashmir are inseparable.” His speech was shared on twitter through Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Gen. Shareef stressed that Pakistan wished for peace and stability in the region, and proposed a resolution of the decades-old Kashmir issue in line with the United Nations and as per the wishes of Kashmiris.

He made a flurry of accusations, stating that India was involved in stoking terrorism in Pakistan. In one of his statements, he accused the neighboring countries of supporting terrorism as an effort to create conflicts and destabilise the nation, and said that Pakistan was fully capable of defeating nefarious designs.

He also said that Pakistan never encouraged the use of proxies versus other countries, and would never allow any country to use proxies against Pakistan.

Pakistan has often claimed that India always backed terrorism in Pakistan, but without much credibility. In one of the most recent cases, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry e Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was covertly backing terrorists in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser and Advisor to the Prime Minister, Sartaj Aziz, also claimed that India was involved in operating terrorist activities in Pakistan. India has vehemently refuted these allegations.

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