NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was unimpressed by Pakistan’s flurry of arrests and warrants against terrorists complicit in decades of violence against India.
“The timing of these actions clearly suggests the intention of conveying a sense of compliance ahead of the APJG meeting and next FATF plenary meeting in February 2021. It has become routine for Pakistan to come up with such farcical actions prior to important meetings,” said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivasatav at a media briefing here on Friday.
UN proscribed entities and designated terrorists act as proxies for Pakistani establishment to fulfil its anti-India agenda. It is for the international community to hold Pakistan to account and ensure that it takes credible action against terror groups, terror infrastructure and individual terrorists, he added.
Pakistan’s actions have also coincided with the Islamabad visit of US envoy on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad followed by a US Department of Defence team landing in Rawalpindi for a strategic dialogue with the Pakistan army.
Pakistan had put Masood Azhar, Zaki-ur Rehamn Lakhvi and Dawood Ibrahim on a list of wanted men in August last year. But officials here point out they face lesser charges of terror financing rather than mass murder of innocents.
It is essential for Pakistan to get out of the FATF ‘grey list’ in order to access global finance at reasonable interest rates.