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India, Pakistan foreign ministers trade heated barbs on ‘terror’

Published

4 years ago

2022/12/17

Pakistani minister calls India’s Modi the ‘butcher of Gujarat’ after his counterpart accuses Pakistan of being an ‘epicentre of terrorism’.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister has called India’s Prime Minister the “butcher of Gujarat” after his counterpart accused his country of being the “epicentre of terrorism” as the nuclear-armed neighbours engage in a war of words at the United Nations, Al Jazeera reported yesterday (16).

The heated exchange between Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar came after the UN Security Council adopted a statement on Thursday, warning of the increasing dangers of terrorism,

The South Asian rivals have strained political ties, especially over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which was split between the two in 1947. Since then, they have fought three wars and had several skirmishes along their tense border.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of harbouring armed fighters who launch attacks on its soil, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 175 people dead, including nine attackers.

The Mumbai attackers were allegedly members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba armed group. Indian investigators say their actions were directed over the phone by handlers in Pakistan.Talking to reporters after the UN meeting, Jaishankar called Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism”.

“My advice is to clean up your act and try to be good neighbour,” he said.

“Hillary Clinton, during her visit to Pakistan, said that if you keep snakes in your back yard you can’t expect them to bite only your neighbours, eventually they will bite the people who keep them in the back yard,” he added.

Earlier, Jaishankar, without naming Pakistan, told the UN Security Council that “India faced the horrors of cross-border terrorism long before the world took serious note of it” and has “fought terrorism resolutely, bravely and with a zero-tolerance approach”.

When Bhutto-Zardari was asked to respond to Jaishankar’s allegation, he said the Indians continue to say “Muslim and terrorist together”, whether in Pakistan or in India.

Pakistan’s top diplomat said Jaishankar should remember that “Osama bin Laden is dead, [but] the butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India”.

India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat when religious riots, in 2002, killed nearly 2,000 people – most of them Muslims.

Modi was accused of turning a blind eye to the violence. Until his election as Prime Minister, in 2014, he was denied entry to the United States.

Bhutto-Zardari said his country had lost far more lives to terrorism and that he, himself, was a victim, referring to his mother and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2007. Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim-majority country in 1988.

“As a Muslim, as a Pakistani, as a victim of terrorism, I believe it is time that we move away from some of the Islamophobic narrative framing of this issue that took place after the awful attacks of September 11, 2001, because what we witnessed from that date up until now is that terrorism, of course, knows no religion, knows no boundaries,” Bhutto-Zardari said.

“Why would we want our own people to suffer? We absolutely do not,” he added.

Abdul Basit, research fellow at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told Al Jazeera the “debate on terrorism cannot be reduced to Pakistan-bashing on platforms like the UN”.

“In bringing the attention back to counterterrorism challenges, India is focusing heavily on Pakistan as the main sponsor of terrorism in South Asia, which has been one of the usual tactics by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” he said.

Qandil Abbas, professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said Bhutto-Zardari’s comments “should be seen from the lens of recent differences between India and Pakistan, which emerged after India revoked … autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir”.

“Pakistan was expecting that the Indian decision will be condemned and international community will support the stance presented by Pakistan. However, it was not to be,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Additionally, despite Pakistan’s partnership with America and the Western bloc the in so-called ‘war on terror’, India continued to receive more importance,” he added.

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Ranawaka accuses govt. of using JVP cadres and police to suppress political opponents

Published

3 hours ago

2026/10/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

… reminds AKD led over 560 protests during Yahapalanaya

Former Yahapalana Minister and United Republican Front (URF) leader Patali Champika Ranawaka yesterday (19) alleged that the JVP, which carried out over 560 protests during the 2015-2019 period, was now bent on preventing the Opposition from exercising its democratic right to protest.

Recalling the declaration made by the JVP at the height of the violent protest campaign in July 2022 that it would set the Parliament ablaze, the former parliamentarian lashed out at the JVP-led administration for using the police excessively to curb political opposition. Ranawaka said this while addressing the media at the former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Flower Road Office .

Commenting on the protest campaign launched by the Maha Sangha, demanding presidential pardon for General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Ven. Galagotaatte Gnanasara, the ex-Colombo District lawmaker alleged that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake used a combination of police, investigative units and JVP cadres to break up the monks’ protest. The government went to the extent of compelling the JVP/NPP-run Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to deprive the peaceful protesters of basic toilet facilities, he alleged.

The government’s actions proved that only those with prior approval from JVP Pelawatte headquarters could launch protests in Colombo, its suburbs or in the provinces. The police have become a political tool in the hands of the JVP, the ex-Minister said. (SF)

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Six killed as speeding bulker crashes into vehicles, shop in Akurana

Published

3 hours ago

2026/10/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

By SK Samaranayake

Six people were killed and seven others injured when a speeding bulker lorry carrying cement and concrete ploughed into several vehicles and a shop on the Kandy-Jaffna A9 road at Kurugoda, Akurana, yesterday (19).

Four of the victims, two women and two men, died on the spot in the accident which occurred around 10.30 am, according to Alawathugoda Police.

Police said the bulker, travelling at high speed from the Matale direction, collided with three three-wheelers, two motorcycles and two lorries before veering off the road and crashing into a commercial establishment.

Five of the injured were rushed to the National Hospital of Kandy, where hospital sources said two remained in critical condition.

The bodies of the four victims were placed at the Akurana Hospital, where two others, who suffered minor injuries, were also receiving treatment.

The driver of the bulker was arrested by the Alawathugoda Police Traffic Division and is to be produced before court.

Investigations are being conducted under the supervision of Central Province Senior DIG Lalith Pathinayake.

News

Prof. Peiris, summoned by CIABOC, appeals for Ven. Gnanasara’s release

Published

3 hours ago

2026/10/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

G.L. Peiris

By Shamindra Ferdinando

owledging that there had been an administrative lapse on the part of the President’s Office in 2019 when Maithripala Sirisena granted presidential pardon to Ven. Gnanasara Thera, Convener of Janathawadi Joint Opposition Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday (19) urged President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to rectify whatever those shortcomings and release the General Secretary of Bodu Bala Sena.

Addressing the media at the former President Ranil Wickrekmesinghe’s Flower Road Office, Prof. Peiris emphasized that it was not fair to hold Ven. Gnanasara accountable for lapse or technical fault of others at the Presidential Secretariat during President Sirisena’s tenure.

Prof. Peiris was flanked by UNP Chairman Wajira Abeywardena and United Republican Front (URF) leader Patali Champika Ranawaka.

The fresh appeal was made on behalf of Ven. Gnanasara in the wake of President Dissanayake and JVP heavyweight Anura Kumara Dissanayake ruling out fresh presidential pardon for the monk. Minister Lal Kantha declared that the government couldn’t under any circumstances meet the continuing monks’ protest demanding Ven. Gnanasara’s release. President Dissanayake dismissed repeated appeals for Ven. Gnanasara’s release when he addressed the NPP really in Badulla.

Sirisena granted presidential pardon in May 2019 even before he completed a year of his six-year term of rigorous imprisonment for contempt of court during proceedings of the media personality Prageeth Ekneligoda’s 2010 January disappearance in the Homagama Magistrate’s court.

At the onset of the regular weekly briefing, Prof. Peiris said that he would report to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) today (20) morning as requested by the commission. “The CIABOC wanted to record my statement regarding a meeting I chaired at the ministry after the conclusion of the war in 2009 pertaining to an ongoing investigation.”

Commenting further on the imprisonment of Ven. Gnanasara, the former parliamentarian said that President Sirisena intervened following a spate of requests made on behalf of BBS General Secretary by the Mahanayakes, Anunayakes and other Maha Sangha.

The Supreme Court on 10 September, 2026 rescinded the presidential pardon granted in late May 2019.