Indian home minister welcomed in IOK with Wani’s posters

ISLAMABAD: Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday was welcomed by posters of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani as he arrived in the occupied Valley to hold a dialogue with the Hurriyet leaders, reported the media.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh headed to Kashmir following 15 days of curfew in the region after atrocities committed by Indian forces reached new heights.

Hurriyat leaders and the traders’ union refused to meet Singh and stated that they met  the Indian home minister multiple times before but the meetings proved to be unproductive.

Kashmiri leaders stated that no dialogue would be carried out until the Indian government showed concern regarding the situation of the occupied valley.

Meanwhile, attacking Pakistan for interfering in India’s ‘internal matters,’ Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, “Pakistan has never given blessings to Kashmir, only given terrorists. Kashmir will never be part of Pakistan,” she said.

Indian media reports emanating from New Delhi suggested that in her rejoinder to the statement of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a day earlier in Azad Kashmir capital Muzaffarabad, she offered harsh comments. 

“Pakistan Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) called Burhan Wani a ‘martyr’. Doesn’t he know that Burhan Wani was a Hizbul Mujahideen Commander?” asked Swaraj. “Pakistan is perpetrating terror activities through Hafiz Saeed and other terrorists in an area which is an integral part of India,” she claimed. 

It is the second occasion in a week that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been targeted by the Indian External Affairs Ministry. The statement issued by it upon the conclusion of the federal cabinet meeting in Lahore on the 15th elicited an angry reaction from the Indians and wrath was expressed via filing a case against Prime Minister Nawaz for his “inciting and abetting” people fighting for their right to self-determination in occupied Kashmir.