Pakistan wants to resolve issues with India peacefully: Qureshi.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi Saturday said Pakistan wanted to resolve its issues with India through peaceful dialogue and desired resolution of the Kashmir dispute according to the United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In a televised statement, he said, "We have to find solution to our core issues. We have to find a way through peaceful dialogue."

Pakistan wanted dialogue with India but it could not ignore the human right violations of Kashmiris and wanted talks on the Kashmir issue in line with the UN Security Council resolutions, he added.

The minister said Pakistan had no aggressive designs but if Balakot will be repeated Pakistan knows how to defend itself.

On February 26, 2019, he said India attacked Pakistan, crossed our borders and bombed Balakot and told the world that it attacked a militant camp and killed about 300 terrorists.

Today the facts were before the world that there was no militant camp and no terrorists were killed there. It was a drama staged for political objectives and for success in the elections and to retake the lost status in politics, he noted.

He said the drama of Pulwama was staged and the conversations and Whatsapp messages of Goswami and Dasgupta showed that it was planned and it had political objectives.

On February 27 Pakistan gave a measured and dignified response. 'We did not want to increase tension but we wanted to make it clear to the world that that we are determined and we have the capability to defend ourselves.'

He said, 'We defended our borders and our sovereignty but we tried to avoid loss of life . We shot down their two planes and later on we immediately released one of their pilots as a gesture of goodwill and the world appreciated it.'

He said the world recognized that Pakistan desired peace, adding when the government of Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf (PTI) was formed, Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a statement that if India took one step, Pakistan would take two steps towards peace.

Qureshi said the world was seeing the role of Pakistan and it was seeing the effort made by it for peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The world knew that Pakistan government opened the Kartarpur corridor and its aim was to promote interfaith harmony and goodwill. 'We opened path for Sikhs from all over the world so that they can come and visit their sacred Gurdwara.'

The minister recalled that on August 5, 2019 India took some steps but these steps were completely rejected...