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Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 7
India has shrugged off a series of measures announced by Pakistan on Wednesday, including being asked to withdraw its High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria, as a fallout of Parliament approving the reorganisation of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories. Pakistan has also for now decided not to send its new High Commissioner to take up his India posting.
Late in the evening, Pakistan ordered some changes in Indian flights going through its airspace. India, on its part, issued security alert at 19 airports and deployed additional security personnel apart from regular deployment at airports.
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Pakistan asked, after the second meeting in a week of the National Security Committee comprising top Cabinet Ministers and Pakistan Army officers, to withdraw Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria, suspended all bilateral trade and step up diplomatic outreach, including approaching the UN and UN Security Council over the lockdown in Kashmir and disturbing the status quo in the composition of Jammu & Kashmir.
While the detailed response is still awaited, sources informally said Pakistan was off the mark in this respect and India will respond with retaliatory measures. Pakistan had no locus standi to interfere in what is entirely an internal matter. No other nation had the locus standi to interfere in the internal affairs of another country, they reiterated.
The sources said India was preparing a detailed riposte to each of the five points mentioned by Pakistan. Reacting to reports of UN-blacklisted terrorist Hafiz Saeed’s conviction, the sources said they were still trying to ascertain details. “We have to know if he was really convicted and on what charges. We also have to find out the appeals process and whether he will be let off during the pendency of the appeal. It is too early right now to be satisfied or dissatisfied,” they said.
Along with downgrading of diplomatic relations and suspending trade, Pakistan has also decided to review the bilateral arrangements and observe its Independence Day on August 14 in solidarity with the “brave Kashmiris and their just struggle for their right of self-determination”. India’s Independence Day on August 15 will be observed as a Black Day, resolved the Pakistan National Security Committee.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan has asked the armed forces to maintain vigilance on the Indo-Pak border and directed that all diplomatic channels should be activated to launch a broadside against India.
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council has expressed apprehension of the latest restrictions in Jammu & Kashmir exacerbating the human rights situation in the region. “The fact that hardly any information at all is currently coming out is of great concern in itself,” said the UNHRC spokesperson based in Geneva.
The US National Security Council denied that the Indian Government had consulted or informed US National Security Advisor John Bolton or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before moving to revoke J&K’s special status. The US called for calm and restraint on all sides, “noting the history of violence and conflict in the region”.
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