India remained unmoved even as Pakistan sent sweets to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of Deepavali when on the same day its soldiers fired at the posts of Border Security Force in Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi on Friday said that it was up to Islamabad to de-escalate tension along the Line of Control and the undisputed stretch of the border and create conducive atmosphere for bilateral talks.
India also scoffed at pro-Pakistan Kashmiris’ plan to hold a “million march” in London, stating that a nation of a billion people cannot be overawed by millions. On behalf of his government, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, sent sweets on the occasion of Deepavali to the President, the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday.
India on Friday played down the Pakistan National Assembly’s resolution blaming Indian Army of “unprovoked and indiscriminate” firing along the Line of Control as well as the undisputed stretch of the border.
A group of pro-Pakistan Kashmiris and their sympathisers are planning to hold a “million march”, which will commence from Trafalgar Square in London on Sunday. October 26 has been chosen as it was on this day in 1947 that Maharaj Hari Singh, the then ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, had signed the Instrument of Accession, acceding whole of the princely state to India.
During her recent visit to the UK, Swaraj conveyed to British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg New Delhi’s concerns over the march being planned by anti-India elements in London. Clegg is understood to have told Swaraj that while British government could not stop organisers from holding the event in London, it had no intention to intervene in the dispute over Kashmir and believed that the issue should be bilaterally settled by India and Pakistan.
“Now it is possible that forces inimical to India-UK relations may utilise opportunities of this sort and it was in this context that we discussed with the UK and we were reassured repeatedly that the UK’s view is very clear and that it is for India and Pakistan to resolve any issue that they have by themselves,” spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Akbaruddin told journalists on Friday.
