Pak Army Chief Asim Munir's Targets Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani
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India.com
27 minutes ago
- India.com
India-Pakistan Diplomatic Spat: Gas, Water Cut For Indian Diplomats In Islamabad Amid Retaliation
In the wake of India's "Operation Sindoor," a retaliatory cross-border military operation against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, sources have revealed that Pakistan has stepped up efforts to harass Indian diplomats and officials in Islamabad, including reportedly disconnecting basic utility supplies and suspendingnewspaper delivery. "Operation Sindoor," initiated in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack, involved nine terrorist hideouts of the Indian Army being bombed, killing more than 100 terrorists according to reports. Subsequent to this operation, India accused Pakistani authorities of a series of moves by Pakistani authorities that contravene the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Sources say that the distribution of newspapers to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and Indian diplomats' homes has been suspended. In retort, India has suspended the supply of newspapers to Pakistani diplomats in New Delhi as well. In addition, there have been reports of alleged surveillance and unauthorised access to Indian diplomats' homes and offices in Islamabad, actions which are a direct violation of international diplomatic norms guaranteeing security and respect for the person of diplomatic staff. These actions are interpreted by Indian authorities as an attempt at intimidating diplomatic personnel. Indian diplomats are also said to be suffering great hardship in getting access to even basic amenities like gas and water. Local shopkeepers, who had earlier supplied packaged drinking water and gas cylinders to the Indian High Commission, are now afraid or refusing supplies outright, allegedly on orders from Pakistani officials. A source in Islamabad informed Aaj Tak that although Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has a pipeline attached to the Indian High Commission building, gas supply through it has been cut off deliberately. The Indian diplomats and their family members are compelled to buy high-cost gas cylinders from the open market, normally with procurement problems, despite having to pay more. Indian officials have termed the newspaper delivery ban as a "deliberate conspiracy by Pakistan's intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to keep Indian diplomats isolated from normal access to print media, restrict their awareness of local developments, and render their living and working conditions in Islamabad unpleasant." Sources also pointed to a precedent for this behavior, remembering the same kind of harassment Indian diplomats had encountered in Islamabad in 2019 after the Indian Army's surgical strikes in retaliation for the Pulwama terrorist attack.
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Business Standard
27 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Confident of 6th round of India-US trade talks: Officials to House panel
Top government officials on Monday told a parliamentary panel that India's relations with the US were multifaceted, and not restricted to trade issues. They were, however, confident that the sixth round of negotiations on the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) would take place as a US trade team is scheduled to visit India on August 25 for talks. To questions by panel members on India's defence ties, the officials rejected recent reports that have claimed that New Delhi has halted its purchases of defence equipment from the US. They said the government-to-government engagement between the two countries on all other issues remains normal, but conceded to rough spots over trade that need ironing out. Top officials of the ministries of external affairs and commerce, and industry briefed the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on 'the current development in India's foreign policy with special reference to the US-India trade negotiations and tariffs'. Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor heads the panel. At the conclusion of the meeting, Tharoor said that Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told the panel that India's relationship with the US is multi-dimensional, and trade is just one aspect of this, but New Delhi continues to engage with Washington DC on many subjects. Tharoor said that negotiations on the proposed trade deal between the two countries will continue. The members asked more than 50 questions on India-US relations, including on trade, which the commerce secretary answered in detail. Tharoor said the Alaska meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could pave the way for the lifting of the 25 per cent penalty that the White House has imposed on India for its purchase of Russian oil. However, the impact of the 25 per cent tariff that the US has slapped on India is impacting the country, and needs to be reduced. The officials said the US imposing unilateral, punitive measures on third countries, in the context of India's purchase of Russian oil, only serves to erode trust and distorts global trade norms. 'Despite the recent developments, we remain committed to engaging constructively with our partners, including the US, to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue and mutual respect,' one of the officials told the members. Members of the panel asked questions about the Trump administration hosting Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir twice in a span of one-and-a-half months. They also wanted to know whether Trump has imposed a high tariff and penalty on India for not being 'credited' for mediating the peace between India and Pakistan.
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Business Standard
27 minutes ago
- Business Standard
India calls Munir's remarks from friendly third country's soil regrettable
India on Monday slammed Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir's nuclear threat, stating that 'nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade'. India said such threats reinforce the well-founded doubts about the integrity of Pakistan's nuclear command and control where that country's military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups. 'India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security,' the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. New Delhi termed it 'regrettable' that Munir's remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country. Munir is currently in the US, his second visit to that country in the last two months. 'The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,' the MEA said. Sources also pointed to Pakistan's history since 1947. Whenever Pakistan's military has grown closer to the US, it has led to military coups and crushing of democracy. 'Emboldened by reception and welcome by the US, the next step could possibly be a silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the field marshal becomes the President," said a source. The Pakistan army chief's comments are part of a pattern in Pakistan as whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their true colours of aggression, government sources said. It is a symptom that democracy does not exist in Pakistan and it is their military which controls the country, they said. According to reports, including in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, Munir, in his address to Pakistani diaspora in Florida's Tampa, made the nuclear threat. Alluding to India's decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 in abeyance, the Pakistani army chief warned that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure if they hit water flow to Pakistan. "We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," media reports quoted him as saying. "We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it,' he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper. On his second visit to the US after a gap of one-and-a-half months, Munir said these visits aim to take the relations on a constructive, sustainable and positive path. Weeks before the Pahalgam attack, Munir had said Pakistan will not forget the issue of Kashmir, asserting, "It was our jugular vein.' India had rejected Munir's comments. It had said that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad, and stressed there was no change in this. 'How can anything foreign be in a jugular vein? This is a Union Territory of India. Its only relationship with Pakistan is the vacation of illegally occupied territories by that country," the MEA had said. After the Pahalgam terror attack, and also subsequent to Operation Sindoor, during which Indian armed forced demolished terror infrastructure in Pakistan, the MEA had said that India would keep the IWT in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjured support for cross-border terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also said that India's armed forces have taken the wind out of Pakistan's nuclear blackmail. During his official visit to the US, Munir has engaged in high-level interactions with senior political and military leadership, as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora, the Pakistani army said in a statement. Munir also said that Pakistan is extremely grateful to US President Donald Trump, whose strategic leadership has stopped the war between India and Pakistan as well as prevented many other wars around the world. New Delhi has been maintaining that India and Pakistan halted their military actions following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US. During the address, Munir added that a trade agreement with the US is expected to attract huge investments, and Pakistan has achieved significant successes on the international relations front. In June, Munir had travelled to the US on a rare five-day trip during which he attended a private luncheon with Trump. That meeting culminated in Trump's announcement of enhanced US-Pakistan cooperation in various fields, including oil exploration. The Pakistani army said in the statement that in Tampa, Munir attended the retirement ceremony of outgoing commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General Michael E Kurilla, and the change of command ceremony marking the assumption of command by Admiral Brad Cooper. Pakistan and US officials are in talks to finalise finer details of the trade deal that includes investment commitments by Washington.
