IT is baffling to read two recent news reports: one, Rangers refused to receive the traditional Eidul Fitr sweetmeat presented by the Indian Border Security Force owing to the killings of five civilians by Indian fire in Sialkot.

Two, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent mangoes as gift to the Indian prime minister and some other Indian leaders on Eidul Fitr.

What to make of it? Did the Rangers overreact to the killings, did they really feel the pain of deaths of fellow countrymen, or did they feel awkward receiving sweets in such circumstances?

Was the prime minister insensitive to the killings of fellow countrymen, and showed real statesmanship to ease the present tension between Pakistan and India, or had he no knowledge of the border killings because he was out of Pakistan?

Tasneem Hameed

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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