New Delhi: After clashing at the UN, India and Pakistan crossed swords over the situation in Kashmir yet again with Islamabad declaring slain Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani a martyr and the Pakistani Cabinet announcing that July 19 would be observed as a Black day to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir.
India hits back, rejecting the Pakistani Cabinet’s decisions and accusing Islamabad of continuing its support to terrorists and saying that Pakistan’s actions were motivated by the forthcoming “so-called” elections in PoK.
New Delhi hoped that Pakistan would “respond constructively to India’s initiatives for peace and normalising the India-Pakistan relationship.”
Burhan Wani is a martyr, says Pakistan
“The (Pakistan) Prime Minister termed Burhan Wani as a martyr of the independence movement,” Radio Pakistan reported. On the proposal of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Cabinet decided that “black day will be observed on Tuesday (July 19) against Indian barbarism in occupied Kashmir”.
The “Indian brutalities will give impetus to the freedom struggle and Kashmiri people will get their right to self-determination for which the whole Pakistani nation is standing behind them,” Mr Sharif was quoted as saying. Mr Sharif also claimed that “7,00,000 Indian soldiers... could not suppress the struggle of Kashmiris,” while terming the “movement of Kashmiris as a movement of freedom.”
But a furious India hit back, with the ministry of external affairs saying, “India completely and unequivocally rejects in entirety the decisions adopted by the Cabinet of Pakistan on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. We are dismayed at the continued attempts by Pakistan to interfere in our internal matters, where, we reiterate, Pakistan or any other external party has no locus standi. Continued glorification of terrorists belonging to proscribed terrorist organisations makes it amply clear where Pakistan's sympathies continue to lie. The self-serving actions by Pakistan in the last few days to derive political mileage out of the recent developments in J&K follow planned infiltration and terrorism aimed at India from across the Line of Control and the International Boundary.”
