Pak HC’s meeting with Punjab, Haryana CMs cancelled

ISLAMABAD: The first casualty the day after a terrorist attack in Indian Punjab’s Dinanagar town in the frontier district of Gurdaspur has been Punjab and Haryana Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s canceling his meeting with Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
According to Indian media reports seven Indian citizens lost their lives and all the five terrorists were taken out on Monday in a 12-hour gun battle.“The attack raised fears of a shift in infiltration from the Line of Control (LoC) to the International Border (IB) and revival of terrorism in Punjab after over two decades. While it is still not clear from where the terrorists sneaked in, they are believed to have come from across the border”, said The Hindu.
But while a rare instance of canceling a Pakistani High Commissioner’s meeting was making the rounds, the normally active Indian spokesman at the Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, was exceptionally silent on the affair on his Twitter handle. The focus of news stories has also been shifted to the death of a popular former Indian President Abdul Kalam.
There are conflicting reports from New Delhi where first the Indian Punjab government said they were canceling meeting with Basit but later the high commissioner was quoting as saying that he had cancelled the visit himself, as two of his colleagues were not given permission to do so by the Ministry of External Affairs. While both countries traditionally and whimsically deny permission to the members of both the high commissions to travel within the country, it is rare not to allow the high commissioner himself to travel, and he does so even if his staff or colleagues are denied permission.
The top Pakistani diplomat was scheduled to spend two days in Chandigarh, where like in the past he was going to use the opportunity to deliver lectures and meet the locals.However, another report quoting the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi said, “The chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana have refused to host the Pakistani high commissioner after yesterday’s incident in Gurdaspur”. When The News tried to contact Basit, he did not offer any comments though the media had earlier quoted him as saying, “My visit to Chandigarh has been cancelled as the Indian Ministry of External Affairs did not allow two of my colleagues to travel with me.”
Monday’s terrorist attack has led to further hardening of positions after a ‘soft’ start at Ufa.VHP chief Praveen Togadia told the media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should put an end to the “saree, shawl” diplomacy following the Gurdaspur terror attack and exhibit a “strong will” like Indira Gandhi to deal with it.
He was cynically hinting at the gifts exchanged by Nawaz Sharif and Modi when the former attended his oath-taking ceremony in New Delhi and the exchange of mangoes by both in the recent monsoon season.
“Diplomacy of saree, shawl and mangos is enough for now. India should stop all dialogue with Pakistan and start preparing to teach a lesson to the country, which is sending AK 47-armed Jihadists for carrying out attacks,” Togadia told reporters.
Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned the terrorist attack and in a statement the Foreign Office said, “Pakistan reiterates its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We extend heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the government and the people of India and wish the wounded speedy and full recovery.”
Indian media reports speak of preliminary probe into the terror strike in the district that left seven persons dead. It indicates that three suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militants had entered the country from Pakistan through Bamiyal village close to the International Border.
The investigators are pinning their hope on seized Global Positioning System (GPS).Here, the ISPR on Monday released data from an Indian drone that they had brought down earlier this month, proving that it was collecting information across the Line of Control.
The last time there was headline news of Pakistan’s role in Indian Punjab was during Benazir Bhutto’s first government when she had appointed Aitzaz Ahsan as her Interior Minister.She had been accused of trying to end the ongoing Sikh militancy which was demanding Khalistan, by handing a list of wanted Sikh separatists together with other intelligence details over to her Indian counterpart Rajiv Gandhi. New Delhi used this to crush the Sikh independence movement, but this earned Benazir the ire of her own intelligence establishment and Sikhs around the world.