The letter, dated 16 August, from foreign secretary S. Jaishankar, was handed over to the Pakistan foreign office on Wednesday.
Advertisement
Later talking to the media here, Jaishankar said India has made great efforts to reach out to Pakistan but it clearly faces a unique challenge in Pakistan’s response. The PPP chairman also noted that his party along with all the democratic forces of Pakistan have strongly condemned the outrageous remarks of Narendra Modi and asked him to allow Kashmiri people the right to self-determination in accordance with the United Nations aegis instead of dilly-dallying and prolonging the issue.
Pakistan said it would welcome any team of human rights observers sent by the United Nations to the part of Kashmir under its control.
Indian Occupied Kashmir continues to be under curfew since demonstrations erupted in a gunfight with Indian security forces, over the departure last month of a popular young freedom fighter, Burhan Wani.
Pakistan, capitalising on the unrest in Kashmir valley after the encounter of Hizbul Mujahideen operative Burhan Wani, has been raising the issue on global fora, forcing the Indian government to launch a counter offensive highlighting how the neighbouring country continues to sponsor terror against India. Pakistan observed a “Black Day” on 20 July to protest alleged human rights violations in Kashmir. Pakistan is being immoral in case of Kashmir.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry had on Monday invited his Indian counterpart to visit Islamabad for talks on Jammu and Kashmir. Nafees Zakariya, the spokesperson for the Foreign Office, said that Pakistan was ready to provide medical aid to the injured in occupied Kashmir.
India’s long-standing demands of bringing to book those who planned and executed the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the perpetrators of the 2 January Pathankot attacks also found mention in Jaishankar’s letter to Pakistan.
“Terrorism issue has become so central that it makes it very hard for the relationship as a whole to progress”, he said.
He said Barahamdagh and a few other traitors had “become RAW agents and Indian agents” and were shedding rivers of blood in Balochistan for a few rupees, and that is why they were thanking and appreciating Modi.
“India has not changed any of the goal posts”. He reminded Pakistan of the past commitments of its leaders and of not allowing Pakistani soil to be used for anti-India activities by terrorists.
Advertisement
In a tit-for-tat escalation in the war of words between the nuclear-armed neighbours, Modi said he had received messages of support from leaders in restive regions of Pakistan, in particular the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.
