Bilawal Bhutto arrested in New York? – Fact check
Photo : IANSHINDI
Islamabad: Pakistan‘s Foreign Office, on Thursday, rejected as ‘lies’ reports that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was arrested in New York. Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch was questioned during her weekly press conference over Bilawal Bhutto’s reported arrest in New York.
Baloch termed the reports of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto’s arrest in New York a “lie” and “contrary to facts”, Pakistan media reported.
The speculations and purported reports of Bhutto’s arrests came amid his ongoing visit to New York. Last week, the Pakistan Foreign Minister raked up the Kashmir issue and insulted India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi by referring to him as the ‘butcher of Gujarat’. “Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister of India,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had said.
The remarks invited a severe criticism from the Indian diplomatic machinery. Slamming the Pakistan Foreign Minister, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that “these comments are a new low, even for Pakistan. The foreign minister of Pakistan has obviously forgotten this day in 1971, which was a direct result of the genocide unleashed by Pakistani rulers against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus.”
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also hit out at the Pakistan Foreign Minister and said that India’s neighbour was the epicentre of terrorism. Jaishankar also reminded the Pakistani leadership of former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s remarks, wherein she had said that snakes in one’s backyard will eventually bite those who keep them.
