Pakistan admits to targeting India’s aid to Afghanistan, attacks during Ramadan

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has made a tacit admission that it was targeting India's assistance to Afghanistan and that its air attacks during Ramadan were hurting mostly women and children.

Employing diplomatic finesse, India's Permanent Representative in his address to the Security Council on Monday had not named Pakistan while criticizing the air attacks on Afghanistan or cross-border terrorism.

But Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad walked into his trap by acknowledging the remarks were about his country.

He made an admission of the criticism directed against Islamabad over cross-border terrorism directed against India and of conducting air attacks on Afghanistan, killing mostly women and children.

He also made the damning admission of destroying India's assistance to Afghanistan when he said that India was pained at seeing its heavy investments going to waste "as a result of Pakistan's precise and effective action".

Parvathaneni Harish spoke at length about the massive aid that India is giving Afghanistan in all areas, from food and medicine to education and women's entrepreneurship.

But Ahmad twisted the humanitarian assistance to Pakistan and said, "One can sense India's pain in seeing its heavy investment in the Afghan terrorist franchise going to waste as a result of Pakistan's precise and effective action against terrorist camps and support bases inside Afghanistan".

In Pakistan's twisted way, that was an admission that it was trying to destroy India's humanitarian help.

Harish said in his reply, "India's assistance is directed at the friendly people of Afghanistan. What we have done in Afghanistan is known to the people of Afghanistan and to the international community." (IANS)

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