'Look who's behind him': Indian envoy to UK says Pak Army officials, Masood Azhar's brother present at funeral of terrorists

As the border tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate, Indian envoy to the UK Vikram Doraisami took Islamabad to the cleaners over the presence of Pakistan Army personnel at the funeral of terrorists. 

Showing an image of the funeral, Doraisami said that it is an undeniable evidence of Pakistan's complicity in sponsoring terrorism both inside and outside its borders. The image shown by the envoy featured top Pakistani Army officials with Hafiz Abdur Rauf. 

Rauf was leading the prayers for those killed in the strikes on LeT's headquarters in Muridke, around an hour away from Lahore.

"I believe it is for your viewers. This person here is a sanctioned terrorist under the American sanctions regime. His name is Hafiz Abdur Rauf. He's a brother of the founder of the terrorist group that you're mentioning," Doraisami told Sky News' Yalda Hakim in an interview.

Hafiz Abdur Rauf is a US-sanctioned terrorist and the brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar. He further said that the coffins lying there have a Pakistani flag, a clear-cut indication of Islamabad's repeated endorsement of terrorism.

"Look who is behind him. Pakistani military. Look at the coffins there. They have the Pakistani national flag. If you're going to be giving terrorists state funerals, what does that make of your system?"

Rauf was one of the masterminds behind the 1999 hijacking of the IC-814 flight, the 2001 Parliament attack, and the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack.

When questioned on why India had not presented any evidence to Islamabad to substantiate Pakistan's involvement in the Pahalgam attack, Doraisami cited the 2016 Pathankot attack, wherein India permitted Pakistani investigators to access an Indian Air Force base. 

He mentioned that the same cooperation was not reciprocated by the Pakistani establishment. The envoy also mentioned the 2008 Mumbai attacks and said the evidence handed over by New Delhi to Islamabad was either ignored or misused to muddy the waters on the links between terrorists and Pakistan's deep state. 

Doraisami, however, is not the only Indian official to flag the image and call out Pakistan for its tacit support of terrorism.

During a briefing on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri showed the image and said: "As far as we are concerned, the individuals eliminated at these facilities were terrorists. Giving terrorists state funerals may be a practice in Pakistan. It doesn't seem to make much sense to us."