Pakistan on Saturday rejected the statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari\u2019s ‘butcher of Gujarat’ remark about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a \u201creflection of India\u2019s growing frustration\u201d.
\nBilawal called Modi \u201cButcher of Gujarat\u201d, a nickname he had earned for overseeing a pogrom of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister. Bilawal\u2019s denunciation of Modi outraged India and triggered a call for a nationwide protest by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
\n\u201cI would like to remind the Minister of External Affairs of India that Osama Bin Laden is dead but the Butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the prime minister of India. He was banned from entering this country until he became prime minister,\u201d Bilawal said on Friday after India\u2019s foreign minister S. Jaishankar accused Pakistan of being the \u201cepicenter of terrorism\u201d for \u201charbouring Osama bin Laden\u201d.
\n\u201cThis is the prime minister of the RSS and the foreign minister of the RSS. What is the RSS? The RSS draws its inspiration from Hitler\u2019s SS,\u201d he added during the verbal slugfest.
\nResponding to media queries regarding the Indian MEA’s statement, Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the statement is also a “reflection of India’s growing frustration over its failure in maligning and isolating Pakistan”.
\nShe said after being unable to prevent Pakistan’s exit from the FATF grey list in October and the international recognition of Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts, India is desperately using international platforms to advance its agenda to defame and target Pakistan.
\nThe spokesperson said that with its statement, the Indian government is trying to “hide behind subterfuge and canard to conceal the realities of the 2002 Gujarat massacre”, which she called a shameful story of mass killings, lynching, rape, and plunder.
\nFurther, Baloch said that the “masterminds” of the Gujarat massacre have escaped justice and now hold key government positions in India.
\nShe said no “verbosity can hide the crimes of the ‘Saffron terrorists’ in India”. Hindutva, the political ideology of the ruling party, has given rise to a climate of hate, divisiveness and impunity.
\nThe spokesperson further said the culture of impunity is now deeply embedded in Hindutva-driven polity in India. The acquittal of the perpetrators of the heinous attack on the Delhi-Lahore Samjhota Express, that killed 40 Pakistani nationals on Indian soil, demonstrates the massacre of justice under the RSS-BJP dispensation.
\n“Intimidation and demonization of religious minorities receive official patronage in states across India.”
\nShe added that Hindutva supremacists have been unleashed to exercise cow vigilantism, ransack places of worship, and attack religious congregations.
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