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Jaitley may skip SAARC meet, PM to take final call

Amidst escalating tension between India and Pakistan over the ongoing unrest in Kashmir Valley, government sources on Tuesday told ANI that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will not attend South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Finance Ministers’ summit in Islamabad on 25 and 26 August.

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A report on the Pakistan state run news agency-Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said that Pakistan Minister for Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Saturday chaired a meeting here to review the arrangements for the upcoming SAARC Finance Ministers conference.

Soon after news broke that Jaitley would skip the meet in Islamabad, defence minister Manohar Parrikar was quoted as saying that “going to Pakistan is the same as going to hell”. He added: “Pakistan mein jaana aur nark mein jaana eik hi hai”.

That assurance was made days after Home Minister Rajnath Singh spent a tense 24 hours in the Pakistani capital for an earlier SAARC conference.

“It is true that Pakistan Interior Minister (Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan) invited everyone for lunch”. The two ministers barely shook hands and stayed away from a lunch hosted for the Saarc ministers.

In a bid to provoke India, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said that Kashmir is “not an internal matter” of India and the Valley “is witnessing a new wave of freedom movement”.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Independence Day speech to deliver an aggressive change of tone in his policy on Pakistan. He also said Modi’s remarks proved Pakistan’s allegation that India was “fomenting terrorism in Balochistan”.

Hostility across the border ratcheted up after the July 8 killing by India’s security forces of Kashmiri terrorist Burhan Wani, who was 22.

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The moot will also offer them an opportunity to give their perspectives regarding regional peace, development, regional trade, cultural diplomacy, human rights and youth issues.

Arun Jaitley Not to Attend SAARC Finance Ministers’ Conference in Pakistan