Trying to fish in troubled waters, Pakistan’s Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution condemning the hanging of Afzal Guru and demanded the return of his body to his family. India has reacted strongly to the resolution with Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid saying, “This shows Pakistan’s unhealthy interest in matters of our country… Pakistan should restrict themselves to their issues.”
Two days before it completes its five-year term, the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament passed the resolution moved by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who heads a special parliamentary panel on Kashmir. Besides condemning the hanging of Guru, 2001 Parliament attack convict, the resolution expressed concern at the situation created in Jammu & Kashmir by the execution.
The House called for Guru’s body to be handed over to his family. Guru was hanged and buried within Tihar Jail in Delhi in February. Pakistan-based terror groups like the lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have vowed to take revenge for the hanging.
The parliamentary resolution further said the international community should not remain as silent spectators in efforts to find a solution to the Kashmir dispute. It said steps should be taken to implement the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions on the Kashmir issue.
The resolution called for an end to alleged killings in Jammu & Kashmir and the removal of the army from towns and cities of the Kashmir Valley.
It further said all prisoners should be freed, “black laws” repealed and curfew withdrawn from the region. The resolution also said authorities should end curfew, lift a “blackout” of the media and free jailed Kashmiri leaders and youth.
There should be no restrictions on religious activities and international human rights groups should be allowed to visit Jammu & Kashmir, the resolution said. It contended that the Kashmiri people were engaged in a movement for their right to self-determination. The House said Kashmiris were “not alone in this movement as the whole of Pakistan was with them”.
The resolution reiterated Pakistan’s diplomatic, political and moral support for the Kashmiri people. It further contended that the Kashmir region was a disputed area and not an “internal issue of India”.
Earlier in the lok Sabha, leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj tore into the Government for ‘no reaction’ to the challenge put up by Pakistan. “It is very shameful that every other day Pakistan was attacking Indian soldiers, including beheading one of them recently, and there is no reaction (from New Delhi).We got some assurance when the visa on arrival (to Pakistanis) was stopped and the Prime Minister made a statement that business as usual will not do.
But the attacks happened again,” she said.
Swaraj saluted the Diwan of Ajmer Sharif for refusing to welcome the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister last week and rued that External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid treated him to a sumptuous lunch.
She suggested the UPA regime to take ‘ground realities’ into consideration before taking a call on demands for removal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the valley. Her reference to the AFSPA triggered a verbal duel between the BJP and National Conference MPs.
Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu in the Rajya Sabha led the Opposition’s attack against the Government over Pakistan’s unchallenged demeanours.