After Guru’s execution: Pakistan decries India’s ‘high-handedness’ against Kashmiris
Country reaffirms solidarity with the People of Jammu and Kashmir.
A member of UN military observer group (C) stands with Pakistani soldiers at the office of the UNMOGIP during an anti-India demonstration in Muzffarabad. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan reacted cautiously on Monday to the hanging of Afzal Guru, expressing concerns over what it called “high-handed measures” by India in the wake of his execution to suppress the aspirations of Kashmiris”.
In the first official reaction since the controversial execution of the Kashmiri man accused of being behind the Indian Parliament attack in 2001, the foreign ministry said Pakistan would not go into details of the trial process.
“The matter is being discussed and debated by the media and human rights organisations,” the Foreign Office spokesman said in a carefully worded statement.
However, Moazzam Ali Khan added that Islamabad had serious concerns over the ‘coercive measures’ taken by India to suppress Kashmiris in the aftermath of Guru’s execution.
Guru, a fruit merchant, was hanged and buried in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Saturday.
“We reaffirm our solidarity with the People of Jammu and Kashmir and express our serious concern on the high-handed measures taken by India in the wake of Afzal Guru’s execution to suppress the aspirations of Kashmiris by arrests and detention of Hurriyat leaders, curfew, news blackout and other coercive means,” Khan said in a statement.
He called for the lifting of “repressive measures and immediate release of Hurriyat leaders.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2013.
Pakistan reacted cautiously on Monday to the hanging of Afzal Guru, expressing concerns over what it called “high-handed measures” by India in the wake of his execution to suppress the aspirations of Kashmiris”.
In the first official reaction since the controversial execution of the Kashmiri man accused of being behind the Indian Parliament attack in 2001, the foreign ministry said Pakistan would not go into details of the trial process.
“The matter is being discussed and debated by the media and human rights organisations,” the Foreign Office spokesman said in a carefully worded statement.
However, Moazzam Ali Khan added that Islamabad had serious concerns over the ‘coercive measures’ taken by India to suppress Kashmiris in the aftermath of Guru’s execution.
Guru, a fruit merchant, was hanged and buried in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Saturday.
“We reaffirm our solidarity with the People of Jammu and Kashmir and express our serious concern on the high-handed measures taken by India in the wake of Afzal Guru’s execution to suppress the aspirations of Kashmiris by arrests and detention of Hurriyat leaders, curfew, news blackout and other coercive means,” Khan said in a statement.
He called for the lifting of “repressive measures and immediate release of Hurriyat leaders.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2013.