India@70: PM Modi plays hardball on Pakistan, plays Balochistan card
Upping the stakes in the ongoing war of words between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out “at the other side which glorifies terrorists” and underlined India’s solidarity with the people of Balochistan, Gilgit and Pak-occupied Kashmir, who have been at the receiving end of atrocities in Pakistan.
In a hard-hitting message aimed at Pakistan, Mr Modi, in his third Independence Day speech, exhorted the neighbouring country not to glorify terrorist, but to fight poverty together. Seeking to expose Pakistan’s duplicity on terror, the prime minister contrasted the reaction of India and Pakistan towards the killing of innocents by terrorists.
Alluding to atrocities perpetrated by Pakistani forces on people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the prime minister said: “In the last few days the way the people of Balochistan, Gilgit, from Pak-occupied Kashmir have thanked me, it is the honour of 1.25 billion people of India. I thank those people from Balochistan, Gilgit and Pak-occupied Kashmir.”
This is the first time Mr Modi, or for that matter any Indian prime minister, has raised the issue of human rights abuses in Balochistan in their Independence Day speech. This Kashmir-Balochistan rhetorical warfare clearly indicates that the strained India-Pakistan relations are headed for a prolonged downslide.