Syed Salahuddin urges Pakistan to snap ties with India over Kashmir

The United Jihad Council chief suggested that Nawaz Sharif should recall its envoy from Delhi, suspend trade and diplomatic ties

United Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin on Monday accused Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh of being a "killer of Kashmiris" and urged Islamabad to recall its envoy from India over the ongoing unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.

Salahuddin, who is based in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, also seconded Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed who on Sunday warned of a countrywide protest in Pakistan by his outfit against the Indian minister who arrives in Islamabad on August 3 to attend a Saarc ministerial conference.

Addressing Pakistani media at the party headquarters in Mansura Auditorium in Lahore, Salahuddin criticised the Nawaz Sharif-led government's policy on Kashmir.

He suggested that Prime Minister Sharif, in addition to immediately recalling its envoy from New Delhi, also "suspend trade and diplomatic ties" with India in the wake of the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir that has left 50 people dead following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

He said the Pakistan government should not have invited Singh to the SAARC conference.

"The rulers should give up hypocrisy and the Pakistan government should either plead the case of Kashmiris or make friends with India," Salahuddin said.

Hafiz Saeed on Sunday during a rally said: "I want to ask the Pakistani government will it add salt to injury of the Kashmiris by welcoming Rajnath who is responsible for the killings of innocent Kashmiris."

"It will be ironical as on the one hand the whole Pakistani nation is protesting against the Indian atrocities in Kashmir and on the other hand the Pakistani rulers will be garlanding Singh," he added.

Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, said: "If Singh comes to Islamabad on August 3, the JuD would hold countrywide protest to tell the world that the Pakistani rulers might have compulsions to receive Kashmiris' killers but the people of Pakistan are siding with oppressed Kashmiris."

He said the people of Kashmir had refused to meet Singh during his Srinagar visit last week, and added that the Sharif government "must also refuse to receive the BJP leader on the excuse that it may hurt and incite feelings of Kashmiris and Pakistanis".