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INDIA-PAKISTAN-DIPLOMACY
India cancels rare Pakistan meeting over ‘brutal killings’
NEW DELHI, Sept 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – India cancelled on Friday a rare
meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart scheduled
to have taken place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, only a day
after announcing it would take place.
The Indian foreign ministry said the cancellation followed the “latest
brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the
recent release of a series of twenty postage stamps by Pakistan glorifying a
terrorist and terrorism”.
Its statement did not specify which killings it was referring to, but
earlier this week an Indian border guard in the disputed territory of Kashmir
was killed and his body mutilated.
And on Friday three policemen were found dead after being abducted in
Indian-administered Kashmir.
India has long accused Pakistan of arming rebel groups in Kashmir, a
Himalayan territory divided between the two countries but claimed in full by
both.
Pakistan recently issued postage stamps of Burhan Wani, a charismatic
Kashmiri militant commander killed by Indian troops in July 2016, whose death
sparked a wave of violent protests in India.
The meeting in New York between Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and
Pakistan’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi was only confirmed on Thursday.
It came after Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote to his Indian
counterpart Narendra Modi calling for a resumption of talks between the
nuclear-armed foes.
“Now, it is obvious that behind Pakistan’s proposal for talks to make a
fresh beginning, the evil agenda of Pakistan stands exposed and the true face
of the new Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has been revealed to the
world in his first few months in office,” India’s foreign ministry said
Friday.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1905 hrs