Pakistan's Foreign Office on Monday denied that Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) was behind the Dhaka carnage and described the allegations as “baseless and unfounded”.

“These are highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative stories being carried in the Indian media. They are utterly baseless and unfounded. Pakistan strongly rejects such allegations,” FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement.

He was reacting to media reports that ISI had links with the militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, the group that carried out the weekend attack in an upscale café in the Bangladeshi capital in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed by the terrorists.

Zakaria recalled that Pakistan had “strongly condemned” the terrorist attack and expressed solidarity with Bangladesh, besides offering condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims.

The Bangladesh government has itself denied that the terrorists had foreign linkages and that it was a home-grown extremist group that had executed the attack.

“We do not have any evidence as yet, as of today, of any foreign connections,” Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said in a media interview while responding to a question about the likelihood of ISI’s involvement in the attack.

The FO, meanwhile, flaunted a denial by a Bangladesh government adviser professor Gowher Rizvi about accusing Pakistan of involvement as “proof of the Indian media’s malicious intent”.

Rizvi had, according to the FO, called the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka to disassociate himself from a media story attributed to him.

“Professor Rizvi contacted Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh to confirm that he has not issued any statement against Pakistan and that the Indian media reports are false. He also advised the Pakistan’s High Commissioner to convey this clarification to the government of Pakistan, to avoid any misunderstanding between the two countries,” the FO said.

“Pakistan deeply appreciates professor Rizvi’s timely rebuttal to the Indian media’s reports,” it added.

While the FO may take comfort in Dhaka’s clarifications that Pakistan was not involved in the café attack, more and more questions are being asked about Islamabad’s longstanding involvement with extremist religious elements in Bangladesh. 

Copyright: The Dawn/Asia News Network