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NEW DELHI / ISLAMABAD: India summoned a senior Pakistani diplomat on Saturday for what New Delhi said was a foiled attack this week in the border territory of Jammu and Kashmir by a militant group based in Pakistan, a charge that the neighboring country denied.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the killing of four Jaish-e-Mohammed militants in a shootout with security forces, and the recovery of a large cache of weapons and explosives from them, indicates that they were planning “wreak great havoc and destruction” in the region ahead of local elections.
India’s Foreign Ministry said a protest was filed with the Pakistani charge d’affaires in New Delhi.
“India reiterated its long-standing demand that Pakistan comply with its international obligations and bilateral commitments not to allow any territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India in any way,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry rejected Modi’s allegations as unfounded.
“We regard this as part of India’s desperate attempts to divert international attention from its state terrorism in (Indian-ruled Kashmir) and state sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan,” the ministry said late on Friday following comments from Modi on Twitter.
Tension between nuclear-armed rivals has escalated since last August, when the Modi government ended the autonomy of its only Muslim-majority region. Pakistan also claims Kashmir.
Earlier this month, Pakistan said it had compiled a dossier with evidence that India was sponsoring militancy within its borders to target Chinese investments, and that these operations were being run from neighboring Afghanistan.
India called the accusations “figments of the imagination.”
India will hold district-level elections this month in Jammu and Kashmir, the first such exercise there since the federal government removed statehood from the area more than a year ago.
