A top intelligence officer on Thursday blamed Pakistan for the terror attack in Uri, saying this was just one of the scores of such dastardly acts which originated from across the border in last few decades.
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Pakistan’s Director General of Intelligence Bureau, Aftab Sultan, was supposed to be at the Delhi meet, but the country chose to send counselor-level officers instead of him.
Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Wednesday summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit here following Sunday’s cross-border terror attack on an army base at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 18 Indian soldiers lost their lives.
Director General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan Aftab Sultan will not attend the SAARC meeting and that country will be represented by an official of the Pakistan High Commission, a Home Ministry official said.
Amidst the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan has asked Delhi to consider the option to boycott the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit, which will be held in Islamabad in November.
Hours later, in a strong message at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, India told Pakistan to “cleanse itself of terrorists” and said that the freedom that terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin enjoyed in that country showed its “active support for such personalities”. “Terrorist organisations use easily accessible technology to attack both soft and hard targets to undermine public confidence and eventually the structure of the state”, Sharma said. Self-radicalisation over internet and social media, and spread of influence of Islamic State all over, including in our country, has added new dimensions to the threat, he added. “Therefore, the effort should be comprehensive and we should single out a country that spoils our unity and regional peace”, Dr Shaida Mohammad Abdali said. The first meeting was held in New Delhi in February, 2012.
The IB chief referred to several conventions enacted by SAARC such as the Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and Additional Protocols.
The aim of the meeting is to strengthen the SAARC Anti-Terror Mechanism.
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He said not much progress seems to have taken place on this initiative. It will also discuss related issues such as combating corruption, cyber crime, terror financing and money-laundering.
