Little premature to assume beheading case was behind us: Govt

India today said it was "little premature" to assume that the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistan Army was the end of the unfortunate incident, but asserted efforts were on ensure that bilateral ties are not affected due to such incidents.

"Difficult to say that. I think we have been working on it and I think many bilateral processes are in operation which is what we really wanted no matter how bad is an incident is, we should not give a go-by to the bilateral processes by which we try to handle every crisis.

"But to say that this is the end of the really unfortunate incident will be a little premature for me. Let's us wait for the outcomes that will come in the due course," he said.
The minister was responding to a question on whether the beheading incident was "behind us".

Earlier, delivering the first Abid Hussain Memorial Lecture here, Khurshid spoke about the situation in the neighbourhood and about criticism by few that that India does not do much and criticism by others that India dominates in the region.

He said relationship with Maldives was "extremely important" for India in the Indian Ocean and spoke about the tiny island being "on the boil".

On Pakistan, he said the country has invested enormously in the friendship and the peace initiative.

"... only to find that one little incident can upset the entire apple card and there are cries for blood on both sides, cries for blood in order to take revenge for one or two tragic deaths. And what to be put on offer deaths of hundreds of young men simply because we take the attitude that there must be revenge for the massacre of soldiers on the Indian side," he said.