Brushing aside Pakistan objection on reference to it backing terrorism in the 2+2 India-US dialogue, India on Thursday said the whole world knows about its role in supporting terrorism and no amount of denial can hide this truth.

This terse statement by the Ministry of External Affairs came in response to Islamabad’s objection to references to it and cross-border terrorism in the India-US joint statement after their 2+2 dialogue on Tuesday here.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the country that provides shelter to “maximum number of UN-proscribed terrorists” should not even attempt to play the victim card.

“The whole world knows truth about Pakistan’s role in supporting terrorism,” he said at a media briefing while answering questions on Islamabad’s reaction to the Indo-US joint statement.

“Even their leaders have time and again spoken about their role with regard to terrorism,” Srivastava said.

In the joint statement, India and the US on Tuesday strongly condemned cross-border terrorism in all its forms and asked Pakistan to take “immediate, sustained and irreversible” action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terror attacks.

In its reaction, Pakistan on Wednesday called it “unwarranted” the reference made towards it. “We reject the Pakistan-specific reference in the joint statement’,’ issued by India and the US after their 2+2 ministerial dialogue,” the Pakistan Foreign Office had said in its reaction.

The India-US statement also asked Pakistan to take immediate, sustained and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for terrorist attacks, and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of all such attacks, including 26/11 Mumbai, Uri, and Pathankot.

The two sides “emphasised the need for concerted action against all terrorist networks, including al-Qaeda, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen,” the statement said.

Reacting to the joint statement, the Pakistan Foreign Office said, “We reject the Pakistan-specific reference in the ‘joint statement’, issued by India and the US after their ‘2+2 Ministerial Dialogue’, as unwarranted and misleading.”

The Pakistan Foreign Office also said the world should recognise the sacrifices and successes in fighting terrorism by it. Islamabad also said the country has suffered the most from cross border terrorism.