Daily Times

NEW DELHI: India has dismissed Pakistan’s objections to its statement on the situation in Balochistan and again voiced concern over the “continuing army crackdown and human rights violations” in the province.

“There is an extremely serious situation developing in Balochistan. There has been widespread violation of human rights in Balochistan,” a senior India official here said.

Asked if India was not commenting on Pakistan’s internal affairs and providing Islamabad an excuse to speak out against human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the official said: “We have been eminently restrained in our reaction. Besides, we are not involved in human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Experts here believe that New Delhi may have chosen to raise the issue of Balochistan as Islamabad has gone around the world’s capitals airing its views on demilitarisation and self governance in Kashmir. The issue may come up at the upcoming meeting of foreign secretaries in New Delhi.

“They can’t talk about self governance with all this repression and abuse of human rights going on in their backyard,” said official sources.

They said if Pakistan had any “fresh ideas” on self-governance and demilitarisation, they could be conveyed through back channels, but maintained that the issue of granting more autonomy was a matter between New Delhi and the state government.

Indian official also said Pakistan’s commitment on ending cross-border terrorism remained to be fulfilled. “The phenomenon of cross-border terrorism hangs like a big question mark on the peace process,” sources said, adding that if terror attacks continued, public opinion for the government to carry on with the peace process would “start evaporating”.

“Not enough is being done by Pakistan” to stop cross-border terrorism, sources said, adding New Delhi’s concern would be conveyed to Islamabad during the two-day foreign secretary-level talks starting on January 17.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry here claimed on Saturday to have foiled a possible infiltration bid by militants on the Line of Control (LoC) at Doongagali in Rajouri. “On routine patrolling, army troops spotted suspected militants near the LoC,” defence sources said, adding that the militants fled back to the Pakistani side when troops opened fired.