When Jaishankar called Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari a ’spokesperson of terrorism industry’: WATCH

An old video of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar "schooling" former Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari emerged on Saturday. The video came days after the Indian minister concluded his meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government in Islamabad. After attending the Summit, Jaishankar departed from Islamabad on October 16.

Days after the event, the social media was abuzz with Jaishankar's old video. The video was from a press conference Jaishankar held after the SCO meeting in Goa last year (2023). Jaishankar had then called former Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari the “spokesperson of terrorism industry.”

During a media briefing on SCO Council of Foreign Ministers on May 5, 2023, Jaishankar responded to a question on Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. A Pakistani journalist had asked, “…[now former] Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari made a bold move by coming here, and it is being seen as a breakthrough. He is also being criticized, but how do you, India, see it?...”

Jaishankar had said, "As a Foreign Minister of an SCO Member State, Mr. Bhutto Zardari was treated accordingly. As a promoter, justifier, and I am sorry to say, spokesperson of a terrorism industry, which is the mainstay of Pakistan, his positions were called out and they were countered, including at the SCO meeting itself."

Answering another question, Jaishankar took yet another dig at Pakistan, saying, "Pakistan's credibility is depleting even faster than its Forex results..." The minister later said, “Terrorism cannot be destiny. A country, which does terrorism, cannot talk about peace in the same breath.”

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari defends himself

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari defended himself after S Jaishankar accused him of being a "spokesperson of terrorism industry". He said, "We ourselves are the victims of terrorism."

He reportedly termed Jaishankar's comments about him being a perpetrator of terrorism as a "joke". According to the Dawn, he said, “This country knows me, have I once even in my political history accidentally sat down with a terrorist?”

"They don't see that even in our country, we (PPP) perform a role in the first ranks against appeasing terrorists," he added.

"A false narrative is being propagated by the Indian Foreign Minister.. and this narrative has been damaged by my visit to India, my speaking and my stand," The Secretariat of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman shared a video of Bilawal as saying.

Jaishankar's recent Pakistan visit

Jaishankar travelled to Islamabad on Tuesday for a nearly 24 hour trip to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), becoming the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in the last nine years that came amid continuing strain in ties.

In a post on X, Jaishankar said, "Departing from Islamabad. Thank PM Shehbaz Sharif, DPM & FM Ishaq Dar and the Government of Pakistan for the hospitality and courtesies."

The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India's warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack. The relations further deteriorated after India on August 5, 2019 announced the withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories.