Islamabad: A day after a BBC report alleged that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a political party in the country, received funds and training from India, Pakistan claimed that its "suspicions" about an Indian hand in creating instability in the country have been vindicated.
After meeting with British High Commissioner Philip Barton, Pakistan's Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said that the intelligence agencies had in the past reported about India's interference and the report confirmed suspicions about Indian involvement in unrest in Pakistan.
The statements came after a scathing report in the BBC alleged that India provided funds and training to the MQM. Khan alleged that recent statements by the top Indian leadership were also an admission of their role.
He said that Pakistan sought British assistance to get the details of the BBC report in the meeting with the British High Commissioner, who asked the government to write "an official letter" to the British government for details. "I will formally write to the UK government on Friday, requesting access to information linked to the serious allegations against MQM," he said.
The minister said the purpose was not to malign MQM as there is no dearth of respectable senior politicians and patriotic individuals in MQM.
Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah also said the concerned ministry was looking into the claims by the BBC report. He added that interference in the internal affairs of any country is in violation of the principles of the UN Charter.
Meanwhile, India has dismissed the BBC report as "completely baseless".
MQM has also denied the contents of the report but pressure is mounting on the party to take the BBC to court in Britain which so far the party has refused to commit to.
The party enjoys huge support among Pakistan's Mohajir community - Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India during Partition in 1947 and are mostly based in Karachi.
Its leader Altaf Hussain fled to the UK in 1992 after a military operation was launched against the party and was given British citizenship in 2002.
Pakistan, on Thursday, also accused India of politicizing the UN Security Council's Sanctions Committee by making unfounded "insinuations" against it, days after China blocked India's move calling for action against Pakistan over 26/11 mastermind Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi's release.
Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah said that a recent complaint by India against Pakistan was discussed in one of the regular meetings of the Sanctions Committee on purely technical ground and the committee decided not to take any action on India's demand.
India had demanded the UN Sanctions Committee to take action against Pakistan in the wake of release of Lakhvi in violation of the 1267 resolution of the UN dealing with designated entities and individuals. China, a close ally of Pakistan, had blocked India's move in the UN calling for action against Islamabad over Lakhvi's release on grounds that India did not provide adequate information.
Kahlilullah said Pakistan supports and respects the decisions of the Security Council while India on the other hand is in open violation of its various resolutions particularly relating to Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
A Pakistani court had on April 9 set free Lakhvi, a development which India said "eroded" the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to it by Pakistan on cross-border terrorism.
(With PTI inputs)
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