Pakistan has out rightly rejected Indian media reports which have blamed Pakistan’s spy agency – ISI for the deadly attack on Sikh Gurdwara in Kabul, Afghanistan last month which killed at least 27 people

A report by India Today claimed that Afghanistan’s intelligence agency – NDS arrested an ISI-linked Pakistani ISIS militant who was the mastermind behind the attack on a Kabul Gurdwara attack. A native of Pakistan’s restive north western Orakzai agency, he was “enjoying close relations” with Pakistan-based terror groups such as the Haqqani network and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the NDS said the India TV report.

The India Today report also added that Orakzai alias Farooqi enjoyed “close relations” to the Haqqani network and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Responding to these allegations, the Foreign Office in a statement said it rejected the “officially-inspired reports” and termed the move “mischievous and condemnable”. Terming these news reports part of a “well-known smear campaign against Pakistan”, the Foreign spokesman spokeswoman said these were “patently designed to malign Pakistan”.

“Seeking to implicate Pakistan in this terrorist attack is part of the desperate attempts India is making to divert attention from its own unacceptable actions and state-terrorism in India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir.” The FO said Pakistan remained “confident that such Indian ploys will not succeed in misleading the world community”.

Earlier, the Pakistan foreign office welcomed the joint statement of six international human rights organizations, calling on the Indian government to immediately release all detained prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir and fully restore internet connection.

In a series of tweets, Spokesperson Farooqui said: “The Joint Statement rightly underlines that measures to combat #COVID19 must respect human rights of every individual.”