Pakistan has taken exception to US President Donald Trump using the term “Islamic terrorism” in his post-inauguration speech and said that it cannot be justified.
According to a report in Dawn, Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria on Thursday told media persons that terrorism has no religion, caste, creed or colour.
“Trump’s statement on radical Islamic terrorism and his concern for tensions between India and Pakistan warrant comments. First, in the context of linking terrorism to one religion, we have always maintained that terrorists have no religion, faith, caste, creed, colour or ethnicity. Irrespective of who we are, we all need to work together as one people to rid ourselves of the scourge of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Terrorism is a global phenomenon and requires global cooperation to fight this menace,” Zakaria said.
Referring to Trump’s pre-inauguration conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Zakaria said that President Trump has considerable goodwill towards Pakistan.
“The crux of the conversation was that he has considerable goodwill towards Pakistan. We are looking forward to working with the new administration. We have a long-standing relationship with the United States. We have a comprehensive dialogue mechanism in place, called Strategic Dialogue, at the ministerial level, which held its meeting last year, and has been regularly holding meetings since 2013,” he said.
Lauding Pakistan’s track-record in fighting terrorism, Zakaria said: “Our operations against terrorism including Zarb-e-Azb had led to the elimination of terrorist groups and stabilisation of the Pak-Afghan border area. We hope that Afghan forces take cognisant of terrorist groups having refuge in various provinces of Afghanistan. Afghan leaders should focus their attention on enhancing cooperation with Pakistan in countering terrorism.”
