Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 4

The Heart of Asia (HOA) Conference today saw India and Afghanistan come together on the issue of terrorism. The conference adopted the Amritsar Resolution naming Pakistan-based terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), as grave threats to peace in region..India had failed to get these groups mentioned in the Goa Declaration adopted at the end of the BRICS Summit in Goa in October this year. Significantly, the much anticipated India-Pakistan bilateral on the sidelines of the conference did not take place. President Ashraf Ghani lashed out at Pakistan even as Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s de facto foreign minister, looked on. Ghani snubbed a $500-million pledge by Pakistan for development projects in Afghanistan, saying Afghanistan “needs aid to fight terrorism”.He said they needed to identify cross-border terrorism and a fund to combat terrorism. “Pakistan has pledged $500 million for Afghanistan’s development. This amount can be spent to contain extremism,” Ghani said. “Afghanistan suffered the highest number of casualties last year… Some still provide sanctuary to terrorists. As a Taliban figure said recently, if they had no sanctuary in Pakistan, they wouldn’t last a month,” Ghani pointed out.Appreciating India’s help, he said the relationship with the country was based on “shared values and beliefs”.Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not name Pakistan, his emphasis was clearly in that direction. He said “resolute action” was needed not just against forces of terrorism, but also against  “those who support, shelter, train and finance them.”Asserting that “terrorism and externally induced instability posed the gravest threat to Afghanistan’s peace, stability and prosperity”, he went on to say that “silence and inaction against terrorism in Afghanistan and our region will only embolden terrorists and their masters”.Modi asked the international community to “demonstrate a strong collective will to defeat terror networks that cause bloodshed and spread fear.” Snubbed by Afghanistan, Pakistan did not find much warmth from India for its desire to resume dialogue. Officially, India maintained there was no pull-aside or bilateral between Aziz and National Security Adviser AK Doval. Sources said they did shake hands and had a brief conversation at the HOA dinner last night. The meet was attended by delegates from 45 countries and international organisations.

Aziz not allowed to visit Golden Temple

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 4

India and Pakistan were today engaged in another war of words. Pakistan alleged that Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s de facto foreign minister, and Abdul Basit, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, were denied permission to visit the Golden Temple.Sources in the government said the permission was denied keeping in mind that Sunday was Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom day and inconvenience would have been caused to the devotees visiting the shrine. They also said that VVIPs’ visit to the Golden Temple had been facilitated on Saturday. But today security would have been a big problem. Pakistan also alleged that Aziz and Basit were not allowed to interact with the visiting Pakistani mediapersons and that some of them were treated badly by the Indian security personnel.