ON BOARD PM’S SPECIAL AIRCRAFT - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said he was ‘disappointed’ with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for the continuous ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pak border despite his promises to hold peace.
Singh’s remarks against Sharif, his sharpest so far, came in the backdrop of ceasefire violations at the Line of Control as well as the international border.
Returning from a two-nation visit to Russia and China, Singh said he hoped Sharif would recognise ‘at this late hour’ that was a development that was not good for either of the two countries, reported Hindustan Times.
“Let me say that I am disappointed, because in the New York meeting there was a general agreement on both the sides that peace and tranquillity should be maintained on the border,” the Indian prime minister said. “This has not happened. It has come to me as a big disappointment.” He recalled that they had decided at the same meeting that if the 2003 ceasefire had held ground for 10 years, it could be made to hold ground later on too. “The fact that this is not happening, is something which is really a matter of disappointment,” he added.
The PM going public with his disappointment is in contrast with a recent assessment of senior officials in the security establishment that the ceasefire violations would have to be taken up at the meeting of the director general of military operations (DGMO) as decided at New York.
It was also pointed that a detailed analysis of the firing incidents would be required to arrive at a firm conclusion.
Earlier in Beijing, Singh warned that terrorism and radicalism emanating from ‘our neighbourhood’ had directly affected both India and China and could lead to instability across Asia. Singh made the remark without naming any country while addressing future leaders at the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Party School.
He was obviously referring to Pakistan-based extremist groups that are active in India and China, especially in the Xinjiang province bordering Azad Kashmir.
“India and China have also benefited from a largely stable global order and peaceful periphery. But we cannot take a stable political and security environment in our region and beyond for granted,” he said.