The External Affairs Ministry said Pakistan’s allegations was is yet another futile anti-India propaganda exercise

India on Sunday rubbished Pakistan’s dossier with so-called evidence of Indian sponsorship of terrorism, saying it was a propaganda exercise that will find few takers as the world community is aware of Islamabad’s role in supporting terror.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and chief military spokesman Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar had on Saturday released the dossier along with they said were intelligence intercepts that purportedly showed the involvement of Indian intelligence operatives in acts of terrorism.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava responded to the allegations levelled during the “press conference by the Pakistani establishment” by saying: “This is yet another futile anti-India propaganda exercise.”

He added, “The so-called claims of ‘proof’ against India enjoy no credibility, are fabricated and represent figments of imagination. This desperate attempt will find few takers as the international community is aware of Pakistan’s tactics and proof of its terror sponsorship has been admitted by none other than its own leadership.”

Srivastava noted that al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, the “face of global terror”, was found in Pakistan, and Prime Minister Imran Khan had “glorified him as a ‘martyr’” on the floor of Parliament.

Khan also “admitted the presence of 40,000 terrorists in Pakistan”, and Pakistan’s science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry “proudly claimed involvement and success of Pakistan, led by its Prime Minister, in the Pulwama terror attack” in 2019 in which 40 Indian troopers were killed, he said.

“Despite repeated calls for restraint and adherence to the ceasefire understanding of 2003 for maintaining peace and tranquillity, Pakistani forces continue to engage in providing supporting cover fire to infiltrators. The incessant infiltration of terrorists and induction of weapons to fuel terror activities continues unabated,” Srivastava said.

These activities are not possible without the support of Pakistani forces deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

The news conference on Saturday by Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership was a “deliberate attempt on the part of the Pakistani establishment to shift focus from its internal political and economic failures”, Srivastava said. It also sought to “justify cross-border terrorism, including ceasefire violations and infiltration across the LoC and international boundary”, he said.

“We call upon Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism. Pakistani leaders have never hidden the fact that it has become a factory for producing terrorists,” Srivastava said.

“India is not the only neighbour to be targeted as underlined by the statements of countries similarly targeted. Distant parts of the world have seen the terror trail lead back to Pakistan. Concocting documents and peddling false narratives will not absolve Pakistan of such actions. We are confident the world will hold it to account,” he added.