Pak claims India trying to 'externalise' its problems

Islamabad, Mar 26: Pakistan today dismissed India's contention that the 17 militants killed during the five-day Kupwara encounter were assisted by Pakistani security forces, charging that it was an attempt by New Delhi to "externalise" its problems.

There had been a "spate of statements from India which are designed to portray Pakistan as the core of problems bedevilling India," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters here.

Basit was responding to a question on an Indian Army official's comments that 17 militants killed in Kupwara recently were from Lashker-e-Taiba and equipment seized from them indicated that Pakistani security forces had assisted them in infiltrating into the Indian territory.

He said such remarks were "evidently self-serving and tend to externalise India's problems as part of (that country's) election campaign." Pakistan wants "good neighbourly relations" with India and wishes to resume the process of engagement for "all-round cooperation and the just and durable settlement of all outstanding issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute," Basit said. PTI