Paradox lost? Pakistan expresses concern over 'recent rise of extremism' in India

The shoe, it would appear, is on the other foot now with Pakistan on Thursday releasing a statement that it was concerned about the “rise of extremism” in India, and the targeting of prominent Pakistani personalities and artists in the country.

“Pakistan is concerned at the recent rise of extremism in India. We expect the international community to take note of it,” Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said at a media briefing in Islamabad.

“We have also expressed concern on disruption of functions of prominent Pakistani personalities and artists, scheduled in India, by Indian extremist organisations,” he said.

In fact, harsher words were used by Mohammad Sadiq, Secretary of Pakistan’s National Security Division, while he was speaking at a seminar in Islamabad. He said that the already tense India-Pakistan ties became even more complicated after Narendra Modi became prime minister as bilateral dialogue was suspended and the ‘Indian attitude towards Pakistan’ was marked with “belligerence and aggression”, according to a report in Dawn .

“The Hindu chauvinistic posture of Modi and his cabinet essentially caters to the sensitivities of their ideological fountainheads such as RSS and VHP. These militant groups in fact control the government’s actions,” the report quoted Sadiq as saying.

“India’s intransigence on Jammu and Kashmir dispute continues as it propagates its Hindutva agenda. This agenda now openly threatens millions of Muslims, Christians and other members of minority communities,” Sadiq further said.

He also said that India’s opposition to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was being used as part of a strategy to restrict China.

The 3,000-km-long CPEC aims to link China’s far-western region to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port (built with Chinese investment and technical expertise) and would provide 14,000 MW of electricity to the energy-starved Pakistan.

Once completed, the CPEC project would mean that the Chinese presence in Pakistan, including Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir, becomes all pervasive and powerful. This, as Firstpost has noted in the past would be a nightmarish scenario for the Indian strategic establishment . India’s opposition to the CPEC also stems from the fact that Pakistan encouraging a project in PoK would worsen the notion that PoK is Pakistani territory.

With inputs from PTI