February 2, 2014
Even as they seek to control damage from the cross-LoC trade standoff, India and Pakistan are in for fresh acrimony over a visit by Pakistan pilgrims (zaireen) to India.
The government has said no to a "sudden" request from Pakistan to allow over 150 such pilgrims to visit a little known shrine in Agra.
February 2, 2014
Even as they seek to control damage from the cross-LoC trade standoff, India and Pakistan are in for fresh acrimony over a visit by Pakistan pilgrims (zaireen) to India.
The government has said no to a "sudden" request from Pakistan to allow over 150 such pilgrims to visit a little known shrine in Agra.
Even as they seek to control damage from the cross-LoC trade standoff, India and Pakistan are in for fresh acrimony over a visit by Pakistan pilgrims (zaireen) to India. The government has said no to a "sudden" request from Pakistan to allow over 150 such pilgrims to visit a little known shrine in Agra.
The government seemed unconvinced about the purpose of the visit as this was apparently the first time Pakistan zaireen had shown any interest in visiting the shrine in large numbers. The organizing committee at the shrine itself raised questions about the motive for the visit.
The Pakistan pilgrims wanted to participate in the Urs of Hafiz Abdullah Shah from February 3 to 10. It is learnt that the decision to deny them permission to visit the shrine was based on inputs received from local authorities including the organizing committee for the Urs.
The organizing committee refused to play host to the pilgrims informing Indian authorities, including the local administration that it was not in a position to receive them or provide for their comfort at the shrine.
They also said that no member of the committee extended an invitation to anybody in Pakistan to participate in the Urs and there has not been any tradition of such large number of zaireen from Pakistan participating in the annual event.
The shrine located in Agra figures in the list of shrines in the 1974 bilateral protocol but has not received Pakistani pilgrims and hence Indian authorities were taken by surprise at the sudden request by Pakistani pilgrims.
This development follows the 2-week long suspension of cross-LoC trade by Pakistan after Indian authorities detained a Pakistani trucker for smuggling narcotics into J and K. India has repeatedly described this as unfortunate saying that an important confidence building measure was being ignored by Pakistan for a trucker charged with drug trafficking. The 2 sides have agreed to resume the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service on Monday.
India continues to maintain that the trucker will have to face the "full force" of Indian laws. Despite PM Manmohan Singh suggesting in his recent press conference that he was still open to the idea of visiting Pakistan, the government has shown no sign of softening its position. While the commerce ministers of the 2 countries met recently here on the sidelines of a Saarc meet, the government officially said this couldn't be construed as a resumption of the dialogue process which has effectively remained stalled since the LoC ceasefire violations last year which included the beheading of an Indian soldier.
Courtesy: TNN
