Videos expose Pak military's hand in Jaish, Lashkar-e-Taiba operations: India

THe outgrowth of picture messages featuring leaders of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) talking near revenge against bharat’s military strikes in May exposes the nexus between terrorists and the Pakistani state, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said on Friday.Several video messages have reportedly been posted on Telegram channels in recent days that feature JeM leaders exhorting people to join the terror group for jihad against India. The videos also feature the leaders talking about the impact of India’s military strikes on terrorist infrastructure in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.“The world is well aware of the nexus between terrorists and the Pakistan state and military. Such statements make it even more glaring,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing.Jaiswal was responding to a question on the video messages that reportedly featured JeM leaders talking about how the Indian military strikes on the terror group’s main base at Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province in May resulted in the death of close relatives of JeM chief Masood Azhar. The JeM leaders also said Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir had directed top army officers to attend the funeral of terrorists killed in the Indian military strikes. Jaiswal responded to another question regarding third party mediation between India and Pakistan by saying New Delhi had made it very clear that there is no scope for this in any engagements with Islamabad.“So, I clarify this - there is absolutely no role for third party mediation in India-Pakistan issues,” he said.In a recent interview with Al-Jazeera, Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar said that when US secretary of state Marco Rubio contacted him on May 10 regarding a “ceasefire”, he was told this would be followed by dialogue with India at an independent location. However, Dar said that when he met Rubio in Washington on July 25, the US secretary of state told him that all matters between India and Pakistan were a bilateral issue.India’s military strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan triggered four days of hostilities that ended on May 10, when senior military officials of the two sides reached an understanding on ending military actions. Indian officials have maintained the US didn’t play a role in finalising this understanding.Dar also said diplomacy and dialogue remained the “best option”, and appreciated the “positive role” played by the US in May. He said any dialogue with India will have to be comprehensive, covering issues such as terrorism, trade, economy and Kashmir.