Pakistan to Provide 'Evidence' India Sponsors Militants

Pakistan will provide evidence to the United Nations and other international bodies that India, its neighbor and arch rival, is engaging with militant organizations on its soil, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Saturday.

Pakistani officials have long alleged that India is funding violent groups in Pakistan – allegations India has always refuted – but Saturday's announcement at a press conference in the capital, Islamabad, given an increased level of detail and clear accusationsm, reports Reuters.

"We are now presenting irrefutable evidence to the world to demonstrate the Indian state's direct sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan that has resulted in the deaths of innocent Pakistanis," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told media alongside the spokesperson for the country's military.

A dossier of evidence will be shared with the United Nations and other foreign agencies, he added.

Reuters sent a statement from the media wing of Pakistan's military to India's foreign ministry outlining the charges, but did not respond to a request for comments.

India not only opposes intervention in Pakistan, but accuses Islamabad of helping militants who launch attacks in India and fight in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Kashmir region, a charge that Pakistan denies.

Charges come at a time of heightened animosity between nuclear-armed neighbors after at least 10 civilians and five security personnel were killed on Friday in cross-border shelling along the Control Line, the de facto Kashmir border.

Pakistan's foreign and military minister said that India's Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency operated a network of agents and training camps through its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan that funded, trained and equipped militants operating inside Pakistan.

They said they had obtained documents showing that New Delhi had met and financed members of the Pakistani Taliban, as well as Baloch rebel groups from the southern province of Balochistan, who claimed responsibility for attacks on Chinese interests as part of an attempt to disrupt China's $65 billion Belt and Road investment initiative in Pakistan.