“The recent incident of the killing of two Indian soldiers in the Mendhar sector and the barbaric mutilation of their bodies has been condemned in the strongest possible terms.
The government has deplored this grave provocation and repugnant act of the Pakistan army and called on the government of Pakistan to carry out a proper investigation of this unacceptable action and ensure that this does not recur. This was immediately conveyed by our Director General Military Operations to his Pakistani counterpart after this incident and reiterated during the Brigadier-level Flag Meeting held at Chakan da Bagh yesterday. India’s Foreign Secretary (Ranjan Mathai) had summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner on January 9, a day after this heinous incident and lodged a strong protest on the actions of the Pakistan army.
It should not be felt that the brazen denial and the lack of a proper response from the government of Pakistan to our repeated demarches on this incident will be ignored and that bilateral relations could be unaffected or that there will be business as usual. Such actions by the Pakistan army, which are in contravention of all norms of international conduct, not only constitute a grave provocation but lead us to draw appropriate conclusions about Pakistan’s seriousness in pursuing normalisation of relations with India.”
(This is the edited text of the statement made by India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in New Delhi Jan 15 on the killing of two Indian soldiers in the Mendhar sector of LoC on Jan 8)
Author Profile
- Manish Chand is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org) and India and World, a pioneering magazine focused on international affairs. He is CEO, Centre for Global India Insights, an India-based think tank focused on global affairs.
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