NEW DELHI, Sept 27:
In another snub to Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight decided not to attend the SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November, leading to its collapse with three more countries of eight-member grouping decided to pull out.
Citing continuous cross border terrorism by Pakistan against India, the Government tonight announced that “in the prevailing circumstances, the Government of India is unable to participate in the proposed Summit in Islamabad.”
According to sources, leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan have also decided not to attend the 19th SAARC summit to be hosted by Pakistan. The Summit now has to be cancelled as per the SAARC charter the summit can not be held even in the absence of one head of the Government.
Announcing the decision tonight, India said that “one country” has created an environment that is not conducive to the successful holding of the Summit.
“India has conveyed to current SAARC Chair Nepal that increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region and growing interference in the internal affairs of Member States by one country have created an environment that is not conducive to the successful holding of the 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November 2016,” External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
“We also understand that some other SAARC Member States have also conveyed their reservation about attending the Islamabad Summit in November 2016,” it said.
In its communication to Nepal, India has said it remains steadfast in its commitment to regional cooperation, connectivity and contacts but believes that these can only go forward in an atmosphere free of terror.
Meanwhile in Islamabad, Pakistan termed as “unfortunate” India’s decision to not attend the SAARC summit.
A Foreign Office spokesman said that Pakistan has noted from Indian spokesperson’s tweet on Indian announcement about their refusal to participate in 19th SAARC Summit here.
“While we have not received any official communication in this regard, the Indian announcement is unfortunate,” the spokesman said in a late night statement.
Meanwhile, after Indus Water Treaty, India will review the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status given to Pakistan at a meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Thursday.
The decision to review the MFN, which was granted by India unilaterally in 1996, comes in the wake of the Uri attack over which India is weighing options to respond.
The MFN status was accorded in 1996 under WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Both India and Pakistan are signatories to this which means they have to treat each other and rest of WTO member countries as favoured trading partners.
According to ASSOCHAM, out of India’s total merchandise trade of USD 641 billion in 2015-16, Pakistan accounted for a meagre USD 2.67 billion.
India’s exports to the neighbouring country worked out to USD 2.17 billion, or 0.83 per cent, of the total Indian outward shipments while imports were less than USD 500 million, or 0.13 per cent, of the total inward shipments.
Meanwhile, for the second time in less than 10 days, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar today issued a demarche to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit over Uri attack and confronted him with proof of “cross-border origins” of the terror strike in which 18 jawans were killed.
The Foreign Secretary called in Basit and told him that the preliminary interrogation reveals identity of one of the slain Uri attackers as Hafiz Ahmed, son of Feroz and resident of Dharbang, Muzaffarabad and also gives details of Pakistan- based handlers, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
“Local villagers in the Uri sector apprehended on 21 September and handed over to Indian security forces two individuals from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir who have acted as guides for terrorists and helped them to infiltrate across the LoC.
“Their personal particulars are -Faizal Hussain Awan, 20 years, S/o Gul Akbar Resident of Potha Jahangir, Muzaffarabad and Yasin Khursheed, 19 years, S/o Mohammed Khurshid Resident of Khiliana Kalan, Muzaffarabad,” Basit was told.
During his interrogation, Awan has deposed to the NIA that they had “guided and facilitated” the border crossing of the group that perpetrated the September 18 Uri massacre, the Foreign Secretary told him.
In another incident on September 23, 2016, one Pakistani national, Abdul Qayoom, R/o Sialkot was apprehended in Molu sector opposite Pakistan’s Sialkot sector and has confessed to undergoing three weeks of training with the terrorist group LeT and donating substantial funds to Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, their front organization, Basit was conveyed.
“We are willing to provide the Pakistan High Commission consular access to these three individuals apprehended in connection with terrorist attacks in India,” the Foreign Secretary told the Pakistani Envoy.
Basit was also told that these apprehensions and subsequent interrogation underline the cross-border infiltration that had been the subject of their previous discussion.
“We would once again strongly urge the Government of Pakistan to take seriously its commitment not to allow terrorist attacks against India from its soil and territory under its control. Continuing cross-border terrorist attacks from Pakistan against India are unacceptable,” Jaishankar asserted.
This is the second time since the attack on September 18 that the Pakistani envoy has been summoned over the terror strike which India maintains was carried out by Pakistan-based terror groups.
New Delhi has already offered to provide Pakistan with fingerprints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in Uri and Poonch, if that country wished to investigate these cross-border attacks.
During the earlier summoning on September 21, Jaishankar had also shown Basit the content of GPS recovered from the bodies of terrorists with coordinates that indicate the point and time of infiltration across the LoC and the subsequent route to the terror attack site and grenades with Pakistani markings as evidence of Pakistan’s role.
“Following the terrorist attack on the Uri garrison of the Indian Army on 18 September 2016, India had taken up with Pakistan the issue of honouring its January 2004 commitment not to allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India,” Swarup added. (PTI)
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