Pakistan rejects India's 'unwarranted' remarks on Afghan envoy's daughter abduction

Pakistan on Thursday rejected India’s remarks made over the abduction of Afghanistan ambassador's daughter in the capital Islamabad.“Pakistan denounces the gratuitous and unwarranted remarks by the Indian MEA. India has no locus standi, whatsoever, on the matter,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office said, in what would be, reiterating India’s stance on the Afghanistan-Pakistan latest rift. 

India had earlier yesterday lodged a protest against Pakistan’s response to the assault and kidnap of the 26-year-old daughter of the Afghan envoy to Pakistan Najibullah Alikhil. At a presser, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchihad had condemned what he described as, “very shocking” incident that occurred in Islamabad last week. He further denounced Pakistan’s “denial” of the victim Silsila Alikhil’s account as “stooping to a new low,” categorically adding that Pakistan “dragged” India into it by launching a barrage of remarks directed at Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). 

Silsila was taken hostage by unidentified assailants for several hours and was “severely tortured” in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. The “disturbing incident” was immediately investigated after the Afghan embassy briefed the Pakistani foreign ministry that Alikhil was kidnapped from the rented vehicle and badly assaulted. The Afghan envoy’s daughter in her mid-20s had sustained injuries on her body, while a medical report confirmed she had rope marks on her wrists and legs and had sustained fractured bones. She was beaten badly before she managed to secure her release, the ministry said. 

Even as Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi assured his Afghani counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar of bringing the perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice, Pak’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid earlier this week denied ‘abduction’ of Silsila, saying that “no evidence” was found. "There is no case of kidnapping," Rashid blatantly told a state press conference, completely ignoring medical reports and the victim’s own account, and instead dismissed the incident as “an attempt to defame our country”. 

Pak’s interior ministry claimed that “there’s a huge difference between her [Afghan envoy’s daughter’s] claims and our [Pakistan] findings.” Pakistan’s remarks were made in the aftermath of the withdrawal of all Afghan diplomats to Kabul from Pakistan’s soil over security concerns.

In subsequent comments made over this week, Pakistan’s interior ministry peddled more findings from investigation without evidence, alleging that the kidnap and assault of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter were carried out by Indian intelligence agency RAW. Pakistan dismissed the incident as “Indian conspiracy,” without elaborating on the evidence gathered by its intel ISI to back that narrative. Meanwhile, Pak’s interior ministry told reporters in Islamabad that New Delhi “was trying to distort” facts and that the “abduction never happened”. It is to be noted that the incident was first reported by the Afghan government as it released an official statement on July 17]. 

“Silsila Alikhil was on her way home when she was seized for several hours and ‘severely tortured’”, Afghanistan foreign ministry said in a statement. “After being released from the kidnappers' captivity, Ms Alikhil is under medical care at the hospital," it said, calling for an investigation and protection for Afghan diplomats.

'Pakistan dragged India into the matter,' says MEA

As Pak’s Interior Minister Rashid labelled the incident as an “international racked led by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to defame Pakistan,” India responded that the matter involved just “two countries Pakistan and Afghanistan” indicating that India had no role in the ongoing spat between the two neighbours at loggerheads over Taliban support. "However, since the Interior Minister of Pakistan has dragged India into it, I would only like to say that even by their standards, Pakistan's denial of the victim's account is stooping to a new low," India’s MEA spokesperson told a presser, in response to Pakistan's Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed's aim at India.