Pakistan High Commissioner invite to Kashmiri separatist irks India
Agencies report from Srinagar mentioned - invitations have gone to Hurriyat leaders
New Delhi: Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s invite to Kashmiri separatist leaders for “consultation” on Tuesday has irked India ahead of foreign secretary level meeting between the two countries scheduled on August 25. The move led to a huge controversy on Sunday with Union minister of state in the PMO Jitendra Singh saying that in case Pakistan sends out a signal that they are trying to encourage separatism on Indian soil, it would ultimately boomerang on Pakistan.
Union minister Najma Heptullah, said the invite to separatist leaders by the Pakistani envoy would “certainly hamper” the atmosphere for the talks. While the BJP called the invitation “most unfortunate” and “old tactics”, the Congress said that it is indeed a “strange and an ironical” situation that the Pakistani High Commissioner is “feting” the Kashmiri separatists. The Pakistan High Commission maintained a studied silence on the matter and did not react to the furore.
News agency reports from Srinagar mentioned that invitations have gone out to Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief of its hardline faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Ahmad Shah, who floated the third faction of the amalgam last year. Pro-independence JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik has also been invited for the parleys.
In the past, visiting Pakistani leaders have made it a point to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders. However, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif refrained from doing so when he came to in for the swearing-in of the Modi government.
Poking fun at the BJP government Congress leader Manish Tewari said, “Pak High Commissioner feting separatists, Pakistan Army intruding across the border, ISI attacking Indian Consulate in Herat, BJP government sleeps, Ache Din aagaye.”