Islamabad; 04 July 2021 (UMMN): Pakistan has blamed Indian RAW, the foreign intelligence agency of India, for last month’s blast in Lahore's Johar Town that killed three people including a six year old, and injured 24 others including a police constable. The explosion left a four-foot-deep and eight-foot-wide crater on the road and damaged several houses and shops nearby.
National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf called it "Indian-sponsored terrorism".
Addressing a press conference alongside the Punjab police chief and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, he said that the mastermind of the attack "is an Indian citizen and he is associated with RAW".
Speaking to DAWN news paper about possible involvement of the Indian state in the attack, he said the day the blast took place, there were thousands of coordinated cyber attacks too on the country's information infrastructure. "We have no doubt that the Johar Town and cyber attacks are linked” Said Yusuf.
"direct origin" of the money through which the attack was financed was from India. "Money was sent through third countries," he said.
Blast was carried out by an Afghan citizen who had lived in Pakistan. Other person arrested while trying to flee the country is Peter David, reportedly a US citizen of Indian origin, who organised a car that was used to carry the explosives. 20 kilogrammes of explosive material was packed into the car.
In a tweet after the press conference, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that this coordination had led to identifying the terrorists and their international linkages.
"Again, planning and financing of this heinous terror attack has links to Indian sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan," he added, saying the global community must mobilise international institutions against this "rogue behaviour".
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a statement said Pakistan had already shared solid evidence of Indian state-sponsored terrorism inside Pakistan with the international community.
The minister said if the earlier evidence presented by Pakistan of India's state-sponsored terrorism was "taken seriously", terror incidents like the one in Johar Town and in Balochistan would not have taken place.
