The former director of America’s Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus on Thursday rejected the notion of “Indian state-sponsored terrorism”, while speaking at annual geo-political conference Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi.
Petraeus, who served as the director of CIA between September 2011 and November 2012, was sharing the platform with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar at the three-day event.
“As director of the CIA, and commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, I never once heard the term Indian state-sponsored terrorism.” He had volunteered to answer a question that was addressed to Jaishankar, according to The Indian Express.
In his response, Jaishankar said, “When I was asked to speak here, I was asked to stick to facts and not fantasy scenarios.”
Petraeus also praised China for recording high growth rate in the last two decades, calling it “unequalled” in world history. “The new normal I think, obviously, has to be the rise of China and maybe now, the other new normal might be “The Answer Is India”,” he added.
In the past, Pakistan has called India “the greatest exporter of havoc, death and humanity”. In September 2017, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi had accused India of carrying out a “campaign of brutality... including shooting and blinding of innocent Kashmiri children with pellet guns.” Lodhi had claimed that India was the “mother of terrorism in South Asia”.
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