Western reporting on India-Pakistan escalation ‘one-sided’ – ex-Indian foreign secretary

The press is obscuring terrorism as the root cause of the latest flare-up between New Delhi and Islamabad, Kanwal Sibal has told RT

The Western media has been presenting a “distorted” and “one-sided” picture of the latest military standoff between India and Pakistan, former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal has told RT.

On Saturday, the two nuclear powers agreed to a truce following the recent escalation in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack in India’s Jammu and Kashmir federal territory in late April. US President Donald Trump stated that Washington had helped mediate the cessation of hostilities.

Commenting on the developments, Sibal said that New Delhi never had any intention of escalating its limited military operation. He also criticized the US for seeking to “take diplomatic credit” for the truce.

The retired diplomat further lamented the manner in which the escalation was reported by the Western press, which he says gave scant significance to “what caused this in the first place.” 

“The attention is being shifted to the larger issues” existing between New Delhi and Islamabad, as opposed to the deadly terrorist attack last month, he argued.

Sibal suggested that the “Western press… totally contort and distort their reporting,” presenting a “very one-sided picture.” 

“And somehow they have a very great weakness for Pakistan despite the fact that Pakistan’s links with terror are so well known,” Sibal claimed. He noted that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been hiding in the country for years before being killed by US special forces in 2011.

In late April, anonymous sources told RT that the Indian government had sent an objection to BBC India head Jackie Martin over the British broadcaster’s use of the word “militants” to refer to the perpetrators of the terrorist attack that led to the escalation of the conflict. Similar concerns were reportedly raised with other international news outlets, including the Associated Press and Reuters.

READ MORE: BBC under fire in India for Kashmir terror attack coverage

Speaking to RT around the same time, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif claimed that the West is to blame for his country’s terrorism problem, which he explained stems from the “introduction of jihad” on behalf of the West during the Soviet-Afghanistan war in the 1980s.

New Delhi has accused its neighbor of aiding and abetting Islamist militants from the Resistance Front, which claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack last month, alleging that at least two of the perpetrators are Pakistani nationals. Islamabad, for its part, has strongly denied any involvement.