Pakistan’s Foreign Office has dismissed as “irresponsible” Indian allegations about Islamabad’s role in a drone attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

India’s Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy had said Pakistan’s role could not be ruled out in a drone attack on Jammu Air Force station on Sunday.

The Indian Air Force had reported two low-intensity explosions that occurred in the technical area of the Jammu Air Force station.

Indian security officials later claimed that explosives-laden drones had been used to carry out the attack.

“Pakistan categorically rejects the irresponsible and misleading statement by Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy regarding an alleged drone attack in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the FO said, adding the accusations were not backed by evidence.

The FO said that India was leveling serious allegations against Pakistan without providing any evidence.

“This is yet another manifestation of the unsubstantiated propaganda and smear campaign against Pakistan that is characteristic of the Indian government and an obliging Indian media,” the FO statement said, reported Dawn

“This is a familiar Indian ploy to externalize any blame, use baseless allegations against Pakistan as a smokescreen, and seek to undermine the indigenous struggle for self-determination of the Kashmiri people,” it added.

The FO observed that the drone attack allegations confirmed Pakistan’s fears about the BJP government at the center staging “false flag” operations to malign Pakistan with terrorism-related allegations for “narrow political gains”.

“The use of Pakistan card either to win an election or to divert attention from an electoral defeat has also, unfortunately, become a standard practice,” it maintained, calling on Delhi to stop the “reprehensible propaganda campaign”.

The Indian agencies involved in the probe of the twin blasts have suggested that the two drones used to drop the explosives on the airbase were pulled back by the handlers later.

(SAM)