NEW DELHI, Dec 16: Pakistan’s appeal to India-based Deoband Islamic seminary that has ideological links across the border, to help rein in extremist ideas that inspired the Taliban-heartland, drew flak from New Delhi on Tuesday.

“Statements by the Pakistani permanent representative (Abdullah Hussain Haroon) are indeed regrettable,” foreign ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said in response to a question.

“The Darul Uloom Deoband is one of our highly respected institutions of Islamic learning,” he said, alluding to the leading seminary about 100 km from New Delhi.

The spokesperson said that the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, a key offshoot of the seminary, had complained to the foreign ministry on the matter.

The protest is curious.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who heads Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), an offshoot of Deoband, is known for his close ties to Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime and has a personal bonding with Jamiat leaders in India. The Indian prime ministers, from Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Dr Manmohan Singh, have in fact always warmly received him.

The Indian establishment seems to be generally impressed by the fact that the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, founded in 1866, had opposed the two-nation theory that became the basis of the creation of Pakistan.

They play down the fact that much of the Pushtoon belt currently under the sway of the Taliban had also opposed the two-nation theory. The Jamiat plays a key role in tipping the electoral balance in close races to parliament and provincial assemblies. With national polls round the corner the foreign ministry’s statement can be explained as playing to a domestic audience.

The Indian response on Tuesday came after the Jamiat leaders protested “the language used and aspersions cast” in the statement by the Pakistani reprsentative at the UN Security Council during the open debate on Threats to International Peace and Security on Dec 9.