Rajnath Singh's Pakistan visit scaled down: Home minister will not meet his counterpart

When it was announced that Home Minister Rajnath Singh was supposed to visit Pakistan this week to attend the Saarc Home Ministers’ conference, it was followed by a threat from Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, who warned of a nationwide protest . He did, however, add caveats to Singh’s visit: That India should allow the Pakistani government to send people to Jammu and Kashmir to help the Kashmiris, and that Pakistan should send relief material to Kashmir instead of exporting onions and potatoes to India. In a statement that Saeed issued in Lahore, he asked the Pakistani government:

“Will it add insult to injury to the wounds of Kashmiris by welcoming Rajnath who is responsible for the killings of innocent Kashmiris? “It will be ironic as on the one hand, the whole Pakistani nation is protesting against the Indian atrocities in Kashmir and on the other hand, the Pakistani rulers will be garlanding Singh.”

Singh, however, downplayed the threat and is set to visit Pakistan as scheduled. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju met reporters in Delhi on Monday and clarified the issue. “The Saarc meeting is a multilateral meeting. There are some commitments. He is not going to give some message or having a separate meeting with (the) Pakistani Home Minister.” [caption id=“attachment_2888190” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Home Minister Rajnath Singh. AFP[/caption] Saeed was not the only Pakistani to issue threats to Singh. Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin seconded Saeed and  accused the home minister of being a “killer of Kashmiris”. He also said that Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif, in addition to immediately recalling its envoy from New Delhi, also “suspend trade and diplomatic ties” with India. Rajnath Singh’s visit comes at a time when Indo-Pak relations are straining, after Pakistan and Sharif made provocative statements on the Kashmir situation in the wake of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Burhan Wani. Sharif had remarked that “Kashmir will one day become Pakistan”, a comment, which evoked a sharp reaction from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who said his dream of the state becoming a part of his country “will not be realised even at the end of eternity”. Singh’s visit, reported News18, has been scaled down by the government. Official sources said that Singh is unlikely to meet his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan separately, as top ranks of the government feel that time is not right for a bilateral meeting. The News18 report also said that the delegation members have been cut back and a dossier on recent terror attacks in Kashmir, where Pakistan link was established, may not be handed over. But the home minister, in his Saarc meeting speech, is expected to raise the issue of Pakistan’s support to terror groups operating in India, and ask Islamabad to check Pakistan-based groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. He is also likely to raise the issue of fake Indian currency notes being circulated at the behest of Pakistani agencies, sources said. The other important issues that are to be discussed include liberalisation of visa, illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and small arms and how to make coordinated and concerted efforts to combat such menace The home minister is scheduled to reach Islamabad on Wednesday and return to New Delhi on Thursday, after attending the 7th meeting of Saarc Interior/Home Ministers.