The Hindu : Pak. asked to 'desist' from anti-India comments

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 30, 2003

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National

Pak. asked to 'desist' from anti-India comments

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI July 29. The Acting Pakistani High Commissioner, Munawar Saeed Bhatty, was today ``called'' to the Ministry of External Affairs and his attention drawn to the ``recurring propagandistic articles'' in the Pakistani media and comments of Pakistani officials about Indian consulates in Afghanistan.

An official statement said that Mr. Bhatty was told about the remarks made by the Pakistani officials and Ministers targeting the ``Indian Consulates-General in Afghanistan, particularly those in Kandahar and Jalalabad''.

The ``calling'' of Mr. Bhatty is a publicised ``first'' in the atmosphere of generally improving relations between India and Pakistan since mid-April this year.

``His attention was also drawn to the baseless comments of the official spokesperson of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry... on July 26 claiming that there was threat from Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, and that Pakistan needed to counter it.''

``Even Afghan officials and Ministers, including their Interior Minister, had been constrained to publicly reject the preposterous allegations levelled by Pakistan,'' the release said.

It said that ``such persistent Pakistani allegations in an atmosphere already full of violence and terrorism threaten the security of our missions in Afghanistan and its personnel.''

``The Government of Pakistan was asked to take into account the spirit of the initiative of our Prime Minister, extending once again the hand of friendship to Pakistan, and desist from any comments or actions that go contrary to the objective of setting in motion positive trends in our bilateral relationship,'' the release added.

Mr. Bhatty told this correspondent that he had rejected the ``demarche'' made by the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Arun Singh. Pakistan, he said, had concerns about the activities of Indian missions in Afghanistan as stated by the spokesman in Islamabad.

As far as negative articles in the Pakistani press were concerned, Mr. Bhatty said Pakistan, too, could prepare a long list of items being published in the Indian media.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman had rejected the allegations made by Pakistan about the alleged involvement of two Indian consulates in the bombing of a Quetta mosque early this month.

He had described them as baseless and unwarranted.

He pointed out what while the spokesman in Islamabad made these allegations, Pakistani security and police authorities blamed long-standing sectarian violence among Pakistani extremist groups as the real cause behind the bombing.

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