By News Desk
NEW DELHI: Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his offer to mediate between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, as the US President stressed he had very good relationship with both Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
Trump, in response to a question at a news conference on the last day of his two-day visit to India, said he and Modi “talked a lot about Pakistan”, and that his relationship with “both gentlemen [Modi and Imran Khan] is so good”. “They [Pakistan] are working on Kashmir. Kashmir has been a thorn in lots of people’s sight for a long time. There are two sides to every story. We discussed terrorism at length today,” he added.
In response to another question, Trump said he discussed the issue of religious freedom in India, saying he got a very “powerful answer” from the Indian prime minister. When asked about India’s controversial citizenship law, the US president declined to comment. He said: “I don’t want to discuss that. I want to leave that to India and hopefully they’re going to make the right decision for the people.”
Replying to another question, Trump said the US was being charged a lot of tariff by the Indian government. He said he was in India to make a deal and it was going to happen.
The violence in New Delhi cast a shadow over the US president’s visit to the country. At least 10 people including one police officer had been killed during two days of clashes in the Indian capital over a new citizenship law.
After his talks with Indian Prime Minister Modi, Trump told reporters he had heard about the violence, but did not discuss it with the Indian leader. During the violence, a group of Hindus carrying pickaxes and iron rods hurled rocks at Muslims.
Black smoke rose into the sky after Hindu protesters set fruit and vegetable shops and a Muslim shrine on fire in the Bhajanpur area in New Delhi’s north-east, witnesses said.
In addition to the 10 deaths, at least 150 people have been injured in the clashes since Monday, according to Sunil Kumar, the medical superintendent
of Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital.India has been rocked by violence since Parliament approved a new citizenship law in December that provides fast-track naturalisation for some foreign-born religious minorities, but not Muslims. A group of Hindus roamed the area shouting praises to Hindu gods and goddesses. Police fired tear gas to disperse them and a group of rival Muslims. They retreated to the two sides of a major road. Also on Tuesday, protesters in several other areas of north-eastern New Delhi defied orders prohibiting the assembly of more than five people and threw stones and set some shops and vehicles on fire, a police officer said. Some homes were attacked with rocks.
The officer said the situation was tense but under control. Police and paramilitary forces sent reinforcements to quell the clashes. During Monday’s protests, police fired tear gas and used canes as they charged at protesters in several areas of New Delhi. The rival groups hurled rocks at each other and set some houses, shops, vehicles and a gasoline pump on fire. Police closed two metro stations in the area.
One police officer was killed in the violence after he was hit by rocks, police officer Anuj Kumar said. Eleven other officers were injured by rocks as they tried to separate rival groups. Also on Monday, Hindu nationalist and communist groups held pro- and anti-US street demonstrations in the capital. Critics say the country is moving towards a religious citizenship test.
At a massive rally in Ahmedabad after Trump’s arrival on Monday, the president praised India’s history of religious tolerance, saying many faiths “worship side by side in harmony”.