NEW DELHI: Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif says India and Israel haveanti-Islam nexus, which is evident from their occupation of Muslimterritories.
In an interview with a private channel, he said India has occupied theterritory of Kashmir, while Israel is occupying a vast area ofPalestine, Radio Pakistanreports.
The foreign minister said Pakistan never accepted Israel. India has beeninvolved in the killing of a large number of Muslims in Gujrat, hementioned.
Commenting on Pakistan’s sacrifices on war against terror, he said,“Pakistan’s valiant armed forces have been fighting war on terrorism withfull force and they have achieved many successes in it.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, on Tuesday, he wasdiscussing with India ways to strengthen security cooperation against themenace of from extremism that both democracies faced.
Netanyahu spoke while on a six-day tour of India, the first by an Israelipremier for 15 years, and is being feted by Indian counterpart NarendraModi, whose Hindu nationalist party has long admired Israel for its toughposture against terrorism.
India, wary of upsetting Arab nations on which it was dependent for oil,and heeding the sentiments of its own large Muslim minority, kept adistance from Israel for decades. But under Modi, the two sides haveembraced a closer relationship based on security and economics.
The right-wing Netanyahu told a security conference that India and Israelwere two democracies with a natural affinity, but their open and liberalsocieties faced risks.
“Our way of life is being challenged, most notably, the quest formodernity, the quest for innovation (are) being challenged by terroristoffshoots from a variety of corners,” he said.
Both Israel and India have long sought to counter militants – in Israel’scase, mainly from Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai region and, in India’s case,mainly from Pakistan. Away from the public eye, India and Israel have beencooperating against the threat through, in part, intelligence sharing,officials say.
“We’ve discussed in this visit how we can strengthen our two nations in thecivilian areas, in security areas, in every area,” Netanyahu told theconference.
His trip to India comes just six months after Modi made the first trip byan Indian prime minister to Israel, during which he did not go to Ramallah,seat of the self-ruling Palestinian Authority and a customary stop forleaders visiting the region.
Netanyahu toured the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and will also visit Modi’s homestate of Gujarat and India’s financial capital Mumbai.
He will join an 11-year-old Israeli boy, Moshe Holtzberg, whose parentswere murdered by Pakistan-based militants in Mumbai in 2008, for a memorialevent at the Indian financial hub’s Jewish center where the attack tookplace.
The boy, who lives with his grandparents in Israel, arrived on Tuesday as aguest of Modi. – Agencies