Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif blasted India at an event themed around Kashmir, calling on the international community to put a “squeeze on India” to free the Himalayan state contested by both India and Pakistan.
Sharif’s remarks came during an international parliamentary summit on Kashmir held in Islamabad. During his speech, Sharif also gushed about Kashmiri separatist commander Burhan Wani, who was killed during a gun battle with Indian security forces last year. A member of banner terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, Wani’s death sparked a popular uprising that brought the Kashmir valley to a standstill for months.
While Pakistan’s Sharif did a good job of attacking arch-rival India when the opportunity presented itself, a similar event on Pakistan’s atrocities in Kashmir and Balochistan was gagged by an Indian state government too.
Authorities in the Indian state of West Bengal on Wednesday refused organizers the permission to hold ‘The Saga of Balochistan and Kashmir’, a symposium that would have featured speakers who have a reputation of being critical of Pakistan’s role in Kashmir and Balochistan.
The reported explanation that was given by police was that “anti-Pakistan” views of the some of the speakers could create communal disharmony in the eastern Indian state, where Muslims make up more than 25 percent of the population.
Critics of West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accuse her pandering to Islamists in West Bengal, a charge that has long hounded the Trinamool Congress chief.
Balochistan freedom activist Tareq Fatah, one of the speakers who was scheduled to attend the Kolkata event claimed that he was told by organizers that Muslims in the state would “feel pinched” if the event was to take place.
“If it had happened due to someone’s foolishness, it is understandable but if it was deliberately cancelled by Mamata government then it is a dangerous thing as she thinks that Muslims of the state are pro–Pakistani,” Fatah reportedly said.
Another speaker, an Indian army veteran, came down heavily on the West Bengal CM for silencing free speech.
(Source: Facebook)
The state government’s stand on not allowing the high-profile event to take place is a missed opportunity for India to highlight the human rights abuses being committed by Pakistan’s forces in Pakistani Kashmir, as well as Balochistan, even as Pakistan Prime Minister was able to publicly note India’s pitfalls in handling the Kashmir dispute.
Perhaps, it’s about time that Banerjee learns a thing or two from Sharif about national interest.
