India summons Abdul Basit over discourtesy shown to Indian envoy in Pak

New Delhi: Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit was summoned to the external affairs ministry on Wednesday and a strong protest lodged over the “discourtesy” shown to India’s high commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale.

MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said: “Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit was summoned today (Wednesday) to the ministry of external affairs and conveyed the concern of the Government of India by secretary, west (Sujata Mehta) on the discourtesy to the Indian high commissioner.”

Mr Basit was told of India’s view on the discourtesy to Mr Bambawale by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, that had cancelled an event at the last minute scheduled earlier this week. Mr Bambawale was due to speak at the event, the invitation for which was received and accepted by him a couple of weeks ago.

“He (Basit) was also conveyed our hope that our accredited diplomats in Pakistan will be allowed to discharge their normal functions without hindrance,” Mr Swarup said.

Mr Bambawale, who was on his first visit to Karachi after taking charge in January, was told about the cancellation just half an hour before the event. The organisers did not give any reason immediately for the cancellation.

Indian officials felt, however, that Mr Bambawale’s comments on Monday about Pakistan’s interference in Kashmir, which he noted was India’s internal matter, had “rattled the Pakistani authorities, prompting a cancellation”.

At a separate interactive session organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations earlier this week, Mr Bambawale had taken a swipe at Pakistan over its interference in Kashmir, saying people living in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones at others.

Cannot ban pellet guns, J&K tells HC
The PDP-BJP government has told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the use of pellet guns for crowd control cannot be banned as the same “is not unconstitutional.” It also said that the courts cannot guide the law enforcing agencies to act in a particular way or manner.

“The court, being not an expert, does not recommend as to how the law and order situations are to be controlled (sic.),” the government said in its response to a PIL filed by the Kashmir High Court Bar Association, seeking a ban on the use of pellet guns. The PIL said that the use of pellet gun has not only maimed and blinded but also killed many people during the two-month-old unrest in the Valley.