NEW DELHI, Oct 17: India’s rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party accused Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri on Tuesday of interfering with the proposed execution of Kashmiri convict Mohammed Afzal Guru and asked New Delhi to snap ties with Islamabad if his alleged comments were not withdrawn in 10 days.
The Press Trust of India quoted BJP chief Rajnath Singh as making the demand against Mr Kasuri, but it gave no clue about where the foreign minister’s alleged remarks had originated.
Independent inquiries revealed that Mr Kausir had probably made some comments implying that Pakistan would not want the convict to be killed.
Afzal Guru was sentenced by the Supreme Court as an accomplice in the attack on parliament in December 2001. Pakistan had condemned the attack.
Mr Singh, who is heading a campaign for Afzal Guru’s early execution, said the government should immediately summon the Pakistani High Commissioner and issue him a warning about diplomatic ties, the PTI said.
“The High Commissioner should be told he (Kasuri) should immediately withdraw his remarks on Afzal or else India will have a rethink over diplomatic ties with Pakistan,” Mr Singh told a public meeting. A mercy petition by Afzal Guru’s family is pending with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
The BJP leader also demanded that the government should discuss with the Opposition Mr Kasuri’s alleged remarks, the PTI said. Pakistani diplomats said they had no idea about where Mr Singh got his information about Mr Kasuri’s statement.
“Pakistan should be given a week or 10 days to respond and if the response is not satisfactory India should snap diplomatic ties with that country,” the BJP chief told reporters.
He was addressing a public meeting in Delhi’s Sarojani Nagar market on the first anniversary of blasts last year that claimed more than 60 lives.
In his address at the meeting, the BJP chief, whose party opposes the proposed joint anti-terror mechanism with Pakistan, described Mr Kasuri’s mysterious remarks as a consequence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s agreement with President Pervez Musharraf in Havana.
“This marks the beginning of the agreement over the proposed joint anti-terror mechanism,” Mr Singh was quoted as saying. He demanded cutting relations with Islamabad if nothing worked.
Indian human rights groups and senior lawyers want the government to probe the possibility of the involvement of Kashmir’s security forces in the attack that led to a nuclear standoff with Pakistan.
