India Reacts Sharply To Pakistanˈs Resolution On Afzal Guru

New Delhi, March 16, IRNA -- India reacted sharply to the resolution passed by Pakistan Parliament to condemn the hanging of ˈterroristˈ Afzal Guru. The Indian government said it was ˈhighly improperˈ with Foreign Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid ˈterselyˈ asking Islamabad not to dabble in internal matters of this country. ˈThey should address matters of their own country. They should let us address the matters of our country,ˈ Khurshid told reporters on Friday when asked about the resolution. Trying to fish in troubled waters, Pakistanˈs National Assembly Thursday passed a resolution condemning the hanging of Parliament attack convict Guru and demanded the return of his body to his family. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath also said that India has taken the step to hang Guru as per its law. ˈIndia, as a responsible country, is doing things constitutionally, and in accordance with the law. For the Parliament of Pakistan to pass such a resolution is highly improper,ˈ the Indian minister said. The National Assembly or lower house of Pakistani Parliament on Thursday passed a 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, the resolution expressed concern at the situation created in Jammu and Kashmir by the execution. Guru was hanged and buried within Tihar Jail in New Delhi on February 9. Meanwhile, in another development India put on hold the proposed group tourist visa facility to Pakistani nationals from today in the wake of growing unease in bilateral ties following the killing of two Indian soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) and Wednesdayˈs suicide attack in Srinagar. ˈWe are not going to operationalize the group visa facility to be offered to Pakistani nationals from today,ˈ PTI news agency quoted a senior Home Ministry official as saying. No official reason has been given for the latest move. The two countries had agreed to operationalize the group tourist visa facility to be offered to each otherˈs citizens as of March 15. Government has already put on hold visa on arrival facility for senior citizens -- part of the new relaxed India-Pakistan visa agreement -- hours before its operationalization on January 15 following heightened tension along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. Government is understood to have factored Wednesdayˈs suicide attack on a CRPF camp in Srinagar, suspected to be carried out by Pakistan-based terrorist groups, before taking the decision. Five CRPF jawans were killed and 10 others injured in the incident. According to the visa pact, group tourist visa would be offered for a period of 30 days to tourists traveling in groups with not less than 10 members and not more than 50 members, organized by approved tour operators or travel agents. The visa on arrival for Pakistani nationals above 65 years was supposed to start at the Attari Integrated Check Post. The new visa agreement between India and Pakistan was signed in September last year to ease cross-border travel as part of a number of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). Some clauses of the relaxed visa regime like multiple-entry and reporting-free visas for businessmen and allowing them to travel to five cities instead of the earlier three were operationalized when Pakistanˈs Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited New Delhi in December 2012./end