New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale summoned Wednesday, Pakistan’s envoy to India Sohail Mahmood and categorically told him that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s telephonic conversation with separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was a ‘brazen attempt’ to subvert India’s unity and violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in a late evening statement, said the Pakistan High Commissioner was ‘cautioned’ that persistence of such behavior by Pakistan will have ‘implications’.
The Pakistan Foreign Office had said Tuesday that Qureshi spoke with the Hurriyat leader and with him efforts of Pakistan government to highlight the Kashmir issue.
“The High Commissioner of Pakistan was summoned by the Foreign Secretary tonight (Wednesday) in connection with the telephone conversation initiated by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference,” the MEA said.
It said Gokhale conveyed to the Pakistani envoy that the ‘deplorable act’ has violated all norms for the conduct of international relations even by Pakistan’s own standards and that Qureshi’s actions are tantamount to direct interference in the internal affairs of its neighbour.
“The Foreign Secretary conveyed Government of India’s condemnation in the strongest terms of this latest brazen attempt by Pakistan to subvert India’s unity and to violate our sovereignty and territorial integrity, by none other than the Pakistan Foreign Minister,” the MEA said.
“It has exposed to the entire international community Pakistan’s duplicity in professing their desire for normal relations with India on the one hand, while openly inciting anti-India activities on the other. The Pakistan High Commissioner was categorically informed by the Foreign Secretary that the Government of India expects Pakistan to desist forthwith from such actions. He was cautioned that persistence of such behaviour by Pakistan will have implications,” the MEA statement added.
PTI