Home boss to ‘skip’ Saarc home ministers’ meet

The Heads of State had decided at the 13th SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in November 2005, that the SAARC Interior/Home Ministers would meet annually to strengthen cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism.

There will be no bilateral meeting during Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Pakistan next month to attend the Saarc Home/Interior Ministers’ meeting, the External Affairs Ministry made it clear on Friday.

He added that protest demonstrations will be held and rallies taken out in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Muzaffarabad and other cities of the country on August 3.

Exalting Wani as a martyr Pakistan has accused India of taking recourse to violation of human rights in the Kashmir Valley to suppress peoples demonstrations.

Yesterday, PTI reported that Singh will raise Pakistan’s sustained support to cross-border terrorism during his two-day visit.

The Home Minister has already pointed fingers at Pakistan for stoking unrest in Kashmir following the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

Singh is also expected to bluntly ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India, official sources said.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed advised the government and traders that all business activities with India should remain suspended until Kashmir gets independence from India. Accusing him of “deploying soldiers in Kashmir to shed the blood of innocents”, Salahuddin warned the Pakistan government against welcoming him. “It would have been better if the Pakistani government had not the Indian home minister in SAARC conference as it would give a wrong message to the Kashmiris”, he said.