SAARC summit: Rajnath Singh to visit Pakistan in face of JuD threat

New Delhi: Union home minister Rajnath Singh will go ahead with his Pakistan visit for the Saarc home/interior ministers’ conference this week despite a threat by Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed to organise countrywide protest rallies.

Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said: “The Saarc meet is a multi-lateral one. There are some commitments. He is not going to give some message or have a separate meeting with the Pakistan home minister.”

Sources said while Indian security agencies were in touch with their Pakistani counterparts for the minister’s visit, it was primarily the host country’s responsibility to provide foolproof security to visiting leaders. The Indian minister has Z-plus security cover provided by the NSG’s Black Cat commandos.

In a statement issued in Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed said, “I want to ask the Pakistani government: will it add insult to injury to the wounds of Kashmiris by welcoming Rajnath, who is responsible for the killings of innocent Kashmiris.”

Hafiz Saeed is the founder of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and  the mastermind behind the 26/11 Mumbai attack. In his statement,  
Saeed added: “If Singh comes to Islamabad on August 3, the JuD would hold countrywide protests to tell the world that Pakistani rulers might have compulsions to receive the Kashmiris’ killers but the people of Pakistan are siding with oppressed Kashmiris.”

He also accused the home minister of being “responsible for the killings of innocent Kashmiris"” Hizbul Mujahideen supreme commander Syed Salahuddin has,  meanwhile, urged Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to immediately recall his ambassador from New Delhi and suspend trade and  diplomatic ties" with India.