Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, Hindu Sena in India: HM Islamabad Visit Mired in Protests
NEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Islamabad to attend the SAARC Interior Ministers conference scheduled to take place today.
Singh’s visit is the first visit to Pakistan by any high-ranking Indian official since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore in December last year.
The visit comes at a particularly sensitive time, as Kashmir faces unrest following the killing of Hizb leader Burhan Wani and the ensuing protests that engulfed the valley. Pakistan has repeatedly tried to internationalise the Kashmir issue -- which India, on its part, maintains is an internal matter.
In fact, within hours of Rajnath Singh arriving in Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that “Kashmir is witnessing a new wave of freedom movement" and asked diplomats to "tell the world that it is not an internal matter of India". Sharif was echoing a position that many Pakistani officials have put forth in the last few weeks, as India struggles to restore normalcy to Kashmir.
In addition to provocative comments, Singh arrived in Islamabad to a wave of protests that have led to a huge security concern for the Home Minister. Activists of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Hizbul Mujahideen, United Jihad Council (UJC) and other groups led protests denouncing the Indian Home Minister’s visit.
(Protesters block a main highway. AFP)
(Pakistani protester burn posters with the images of PM Modi and HM Rajnath Singh. AFP)
Mumbai terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed led the protests, with the PTI quoting Saeed saying, “We were not expecting that the Pakistani rulers would welcome Singh who is responsible for the killings of innocent Kashmiris.”
Sources say that India has conveyed to Pakistan its concerns regarding the threat to Rajnath Singh from the organisations leading the protests in Islamabad, and has reiterated that the Indian Home Minister’s security is the state’s responsibility.
Meanwhile, India too saw protests, albeit limited, over Singh’s Islamabad visit. Hindu Sena activists staged a protest at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday.
(Hindu Sena activists staging a protest against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for his visit to Pakistan, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday. Pic/PTI)
Singh, on his part, put forth an amenable front, as he took to Twitter before the visit to say, “Leaving for Islamabad to attend the SAARC HM Conference. This Conference provides a platform to discuss issues pertaining to security,” and adding, “Looking forward to underscore the imperative of meaningful cooperation within the region against terrorism and organised crime.”
Dawn news, meanwhile, reported that the SAARC session on Wednesday focused on counter terrorism, human trafficking and the drug trade. “Wednesday's closed-door session with home ministers discussed counter-terrorism as well as strategies to counter human and drug trafficking. Visa reforms on the agenda included a more streamlined and centralised system to process visas between SAARC countries as well as the potential introduction of SAARC Visa Exemptions (SVEs) for three categories: officials, artists and businessmen,” Dawn reported.
Singh’s visit, however, is still significant, as relations between the two countries have been strained ever since the attack on the Pathankot base in January. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, but in a confusing move, invited Pakistan to send its own investigating agency. Not surprisingly, the agency concluded that Pakistan had no role to play in the attack, going as far as to say that India staged the attack.
The Indian government had come under criticism for allowing a JIT probe in what was clearly an “internal matter.” At the time, Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia criticised the move saying, “The move has accorded recognition that the terrorist attack was caused by non-state actors and that the Pakistan Government was not involved in it… For the first time in the country’s history, an investigation team comprising an Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) officer was given permission to probe into a sensitive matter such as Pathankot terrorist attack.”
Since then, relations between the two countries have been particularly strained. The crisis in Kashmir -- along with Pakistan’s mainstream narrative that seeks to internationalise the issue -- has caused further strains.