New Delhi: India hit back yesterday at Pakistan after it denounced Afzal Guru’s execution, with parliament passing a resolution against Islamabad and the government axing a bilateral hockey series.
Ruling and opposition MPs showed rare unanimity in both houses as they passed a resolution rejecting the Pakistani national assembly’s motion against the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
“This house totally rejects the resolution passed by the national assembly of Pakistan on March 14,” said the resolution, read out in the Lok Sabha by Speaker Meira Kumar and in the Rajya Sabha by Chairman M Hamid Ansari.
“The house rejects interference in the internal affairs of India and calls upon the national assembly of Pakistan to desist from acts of support for extremists and terrorists,” it said.
Both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders spoke out strongly against Pakistan.
BJP’s Arun Jaitley said the Pakistani resolution was an “official stamp of approval” on the 2001 attack on Indian parliament that almost sparked a war between the two countries.
He called for an end to a dialogues with Pakistan.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the Indian resolution would give a clear message to Islamabad.
Until now, Pakistan, which supports the separatist campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, had refrained from commenting on the February 9 execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, for plotting the parliament attack.
Simultaneously, India cancelled a hockey series with Pakistan. Hockey India and the Pakistan Hockey Federation had planned the two-leg series after seven years. Pakistan were to play a five-match series in India from April 5 to 15. India were to tour Pakistan for five matches from April 23.
Sporting ties between the two countries were snapped after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks by Pakistani gunmen.
Outside parliament, the BJP asked India to scale down diplomatic ties with Pakistan.
IANS
