Owaisi calls Sharif, Asim ‘jokers’, leads charge in Muslim nations

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday tore into Pakistan for using cheap emulation tactics to claim military superiority over India and said "nakal karne ke liye bhi akal chahiye aur inke paas akal bhi nahi hai (need brains to cheat, they lack it)”.

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Speaking to the Indian diaspora in Kuwait, Owaisi, who has been leading the anti-Pakistan charge in the Muslim world, asked the Indian community to “take everything Pakistan says not even with a pinch of salt”.

Owaisi was referring to a Sunday event where Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir gifted a photo of a 2019 Chinese army drill to PM Shehbaz Sharif.

“The Pakistani President was there. The Speaker of the National Assembly was there and these stupid jokers, they want to compete with India. They had given the photograph of a 2019 Chinese army drill claiming it as a victory over India. This is what Pakistan indulges in. They cannot even give a proper photo," said Owaisi.

The AIMIM chief, who is part of the multi-party Indian delegation on a tour to four Muslim nations, asked the diaspora to rely only on what the Indian foreign ministry or the official spokesperson was saying.

After Bahrain, the delegation, led by BJP's Baijayant Panda and consisting of former Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad and Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, among others, reached Kuwait on Sunday where they met Deputy Prime Minister Sherida Abdullah Saad Al Maousherji. The delegation arrived in Riyadh later on Tuesday night and will travel further to Algeria.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Sandhu said the Indian delegation urged the support of both Bahrain and Kuwait to return Pakistan to the Financial Action Task Force grey list. “It was during the presidency of Bahrain that Pakistan was grey-listed at FATF in 2018 over funding to global terrorist organisations. We have urged Bahrain and Kuwait for supporting India to grey-list Pakistan again. Further, the Gulf nations can play a critical role in isolating Pakistan in global forums like the Organisation of Islamic Countries," Sandhu said.

Panda and Owaisi, in their remarks in Bahrain, spoke of how it was under Bahrain's presidency of the FATF committee that the trial of Lashkar’s Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks had resumed after Pakistan made a mockery of justice despite being given clear evidence of their proxies being involved.

The delegation also visited Kuwait's ‘Rihla-e-Dosti: 250 Years of India-Kuwait Friendship’ exhibition that reaffirms heritage ties between India and Kuwait, where Indians form the largest expatriate group.

Earlier in Bahrain, the Indian leaders drew parallels between the Takfiri ideology of the ISIS and that of Pakistan-trained terrorists.

Takfiri entails declaring someone an infidel to justify violence. “There is no difference between Pakistan-trained terrorists and ISIS' Takfiri ideology. The Quran says categorically that killing even one innocent person--it does not say one innocent Muslim--is like killing the whole humankind," explained Owaisi.