Ready to engage with India on dossier related to Jaish-e-Mohammad: Pakistan Foreign Minister

"Pakistan wants de-escalation. Pakistan wants peace in the region, wants stability. We are ready for talks. It is for India to decide," Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said

Ready to engage with India on dossier related to Jaish: Pakistan Foreign Minister

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (AP photo/File)

Days after New Delhi submitted a dossier to Islamabad that has information on Jaish-e-Mohammad’s link to the Pulwama attack in Kashmir that killed at least 40 CRPF soldiers, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that that the country is “willing to engage” with India if it wants to talk.

Speaking to BBC journalist Secunder Kermani, Qureshi said, “We are studying the dossier. If India wishes to initiate a dialogue based on this dossier, we are willing to engage with them.” He also added that Pakistan is “ready for talks” and welcomes the United Nations’ offer for helping in de-escalation between the two countries.

“Pakistan wants de-escalation. Pakistan wants peace in the region, wants stability. We are ready for talks. It is for India to decide,” he said during the interview.

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Read | JeM chief Masood Azhar is in Pakistan, admits Foreign Minister Qureshi, says he’s ‘too unwell to leave house’

India has handed over a dossier that includes details on Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar as well as evidence related to Pulwama attack. The dossier handed over to Pakistan with “specific details of JeM complicity in Pulwama terror attack and the presence of JeM terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan” contains details of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar’s anti-India speeches and claims of attacks by Jaish on security forces in the past two years, official sources had told the Indian Express.

On the Pulwama attack, New Delhi shared evidence linking the suicide attacker, Adil Ahmad Dar, and his suspected aide, Sajjad Bhat, to JeM. In the latest dossier, New Delhi reiterated that JeM carried out these activities even though it was placed under ban by the Pakistani authorities in 2002.

Read | Why Imran Khan’s words ring hollow: Pakistan is sitting on Jaish dossiers

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Besides Pulwama, India also presented nine specific instances when JeM conducted rallies and religious congregations in Pakistan “right under the nose of the Pakistan government” to indoctrinate and recruit men by instigating them against India.

Talking about taking an action against Azhar, Qureshi said, “that Pakistan will take action against him if presented with “evidence that can stand in a court of law.”

Earlier during an interaction with CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, Qureshi admitted that Azhar is in Pakistan and that he is “unwell to an extent that he cannot leave his house.” Masood Azhar’s JeM has carried out multiple attacks on India over the last nearly two decades, including the recent Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF officers.