External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup dubs Islamabad’s aid proposal ‘absurd’. ANI photo
Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 14
India today hit back at Pakistan for proposing to send supplies to Jammu and Kashmir. It bluntly said India and others in the region had received enough of Pakistan’s trademark exports, including international terrorism, cross-border infiltrators, weapons, narcotics and fake currency.“I can only characterise its contents that propose sending supplies to the Indian state of J&K as absurd,” official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said. “We completely and categorically reject this purported communication from the Pakistan foreign Ministry,” he added.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The India-Pakistan narrative seems to have touched a new low with Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit dedicating Independence Day of Pakistan to the independence of Kashmir. He made these comments at a function at the Pakistan High Commission here today. The Congress called Basit’s remarks the “greatest breach of diplomatic etiquette”, while BJP’s Shrikant Sharma said, “Pakistan is speaking out of frustration after Modi showed it the mirror over atrocities being committed by its army against people in PoK and Balochistan.”With both countries hurling accusations and counter-accusations at one another on an almost daily basis, the much hyped dialogue that was supposed to start with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lahore stopover last December seems to be a closed chapter.Modi on Friday hit out at Pakistan saying, “The fundamental reason for disturbances in Kashmir is cross-border terrorism promoted by our neighbouring country. Due to terrorism, normal life in Kashmir valley is affected.”With the situation in Kashmir worsening and Pakistan determined to internationalise the issue, the bilateral process is likely to be stuck in the foreseeable future.
Pak offer absurd: MEAI can only characterise its contents that propose sending supplies to the Indian state of J&K as absurd… We completely and categorically reject this purported communication from the Pakistan foreign Ministry. – Vikas Swarup, MEA SpokespersonCeasefire violationJammu: After a lull of over four months, the ceasefire on the Line of Control was violated again with Pakistan Army firing at two places and shelling mortars in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. Indian troops retaliated to the firing which was still going on when last reports came in. TNS
