Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has blamed India for the suicide blast outside an Islamabad court that killed 12 people. He also alleged New Delhi's role in Monday's attack on a cadet college in Wana, near the border with Afghanistan.
Sharif blamed "Indian-sponsored terrorist proxies" for the twin attacks, according to Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the Pakistani government's news agency. "These attacks are a continuation of India's state-sponsored terrorism aimed at destabilising Pakistan," he was quoted by APP as saying on Tuesday.
Pakistan, the nest of terrorism in South Asia, has long been an exporter of terrorism. It harbours terrorists, and when it turns into a Frankenstein's Monster, it turns to blame India for it.
It has been linking the attacks by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to the Taliban regime in Kabul, and been calling it "India's puppet". It has even farcically named the TTP Fitna Al Hindustan, to link it to India.
Shehbaz Sharif's allegations against India came just hours after the blast, without any supporting evidence.
Sharif said while "Indian-backed militants" struck in Islamabad, the same network operating from Afghan territory also attacked innocent children in Wana, according to the APP report. "No condemnation is enough for these attacks being carried out from Afghan soil under Indian patronage," he said.
In a hard-hitting response, India unequivocally rejected the baseless and unfounded allegations of "an obviously delirious Pakistani leadership". It also said Islamabad was involved in a predictable tactic to deflect its attention from its own internal crisis.
"India unequivocally rejects the baseless and unfounded allegations being made by an obviously delirious Pakistani leadership. It is a predictable tactic by Pakistan to concoct false narratives against India in order to deflect the attention of its own public from the ongoing military-inspired constitutional subversion and power-grab unfolding within the country. The international community is well aware of the reality and will not be misled by Pakistan’s desperate diversionary ploys," a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had said the country was "in a state of war", describing the latest "suicide bombing" near Islamabad District Judicial Complex as a "wake-up call" for the nation.
The Pakistani Defence Minister directly blamed the rulers of Kabul for the bombing, warning that the "war" between Afghanistan and Pakistan was no longer confined to the border region—the Durand Line.
Khwaja Asif said that in the current situation, expecting progress in peace talks with Afghanistan's Taliban-led government would be unrealistic.
"We are in a state of war. Anyone who thinks that the Pakistan Army is fighting this war in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and the remote areas of Balochistan should take today's suicide attack at the Islamabad district courts as a wake-up call: this is a war for all of Pakistan, in which the Pakistan Army is giving daily sacrifices and making the people feel secure," he wrote on X.
