Former interior minister of Pakistan Rehman Malik has blamed India for the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, in which 20 people were killed. He said, “We should not take the threat of India’s Defence Ministry lightly. Indian agency R&AW [Research and Analysis Wing] is behind the attack…They have reached an understanding with Tehreek-e-Taliban,” Malik told a news channel. However, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack, hours after claiming responsibility for it in a Facebook post.

Malik also condemned Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statements from last week, adding that he was behind the university attack. “How dare he [Parrikar] talk about us...hum kahte hain ki Bacha Khan University attack unhone karwaya hai [I say he was behind the Bacha Khan University attack],” Malik said. Last week, Parrikar had said that India had exhausted its tolerance for terror attacks, referring to the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. On Thursday, Parrikar condemned the attack at Bacha Khan University, and said any form of violence and killing of civilians is condemnable.

The former minister also claimed that terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad was not behind the Pathankot attacks and that they had been carried out by people from India. “Indian intelligence agency R&AW does not want relations to improve between Pakistan and India. Whenever the Modi government has tried to hold talks, R&AW has thwarted such moves,” he added.