NEW DELHI: India’s hanging of a man convicted in a terror attack is threatening to damage recently improved relations with longtime rival Pakistan.
New Delhi reacted angrily to a resolution adopted yesterday by Pakistan’s National Assembly condemning the execution last
month of Mohammed Afzal Guru, who was convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India’s Parliament, accusing its neighbour of interfering in its internal affairs.New Delhi reacted angrily to a resolution adopted yesterday by Pakistan’s National Assembly condemning the execution last
India’s Parliament passed a resolution of its own today, insisting the Pakistani assembly ‘desist from acts of support for extremist and terrorist elements’.
“I hope they (Pakistan) will get the message,” said Salman Khurshid, India’s foreign minister.
Tensions also rose this week when India accused Pakistan of involvement in an attack on Wednesday in Kashmir that killed five paramilitary soldiers.
Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the militants were carrying a diary with Pakistani phone numbers and a tube of skin ointment manufactured in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Pakistan denied the attackers came from its territory. Guru was secretly hanged and buried in New Delhi’s high-security prison last month.
Yesterday, Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament lent support through a unanimously adopted resolution urging India to hand over Guru’s body to his family. “This house expresses deep concern over the situation arising in Kashmir after the hanging of Afzal Guru,” the resolution said.
The resolution triggered a strong reaction in India.
