Delhi summons Pak envoy
Stepping up its diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, India yesterday summoned Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit and gave him evidence of cross-border origins of Uri terror attack.
Tensions between the longtime rivals have spiked over a recent attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad.
"Foreign secretary S Jaishankar summoned Abdul Basit and told him that the two guides who helped infiltration were apprehended by local villagers and are now in police custody," MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted yesterday.
This is the second time that India has summoned the Pakistan envoy over the Uri terror attack.
Jaishankar also told Basit about the content of GPS recovered from the bodies of terrorists with coordinates that indicate the point and time of infiltration across the LoC and the subsequent route to the terror attack site and grenades with Pakistani markings as evidence of Pakistan's role in Uri attack in which 18 jawans were killed.
Earlier, Islamabad branded an address by India's foreign minister to the UN in which she accused Pakistan of terrorism in disputed Kashmir as a "litany of falsehoods". It added "Jammu and Kashmir never was and can never be an integral part of India.
Addressing the UN General Assembly on Monday, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said: "Pakistan remains in denial. It persists in the belief that such attacks will enable it to obtain the territory it covets.
"My firm advice to Pakistan is: abandon this dream. Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so."
Pakistan responded by calling Swaraj's speech a "litany of falsehoods" that distorted history, and denied its forces had aided the army base attack.
Meanwhile, rattled by India's decision to review the decades old Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan has threatened to petition the International Court of Justice.
According to Pakistani media reports, Nawaz Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that "If India violates the treaty, Pakistan can approach the International Court of Justice."
On Monday, India took the offensive right into the heart of Pakistan and decided to suspend the meeting of the Indus Water Commission. "Blood and water cannot flow simultaneously," Indian PM Modi told a meeting to review the Indus Waters Treaty.
The meeting discussed ways to make Pakistan pay for the terrorist attack, in a bid to extend the retaliation against the strike beyond efforts to isolate Pakistan diplomatically.
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