Making up story to discredit me, India: Shobhaa De on Basit

Responding to allegations made by former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit, that he influenced Shobhaa De's writings on Kashmir, the columnist has called his statements "dangerous, malicious".

De said she is a patriotic Indian and feels "deeply insulted" by the claims made by Basit, who was appointed as Pakistan's High Commissioner to India in 2014 and seved in the post for four years.

In a video interview which surfaced on Twitter, Basit claims that after the July 2016 death of Burhan Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen commander, pellet guns were used on protesters and there was an economic blockade which none of the mainland journalists were writing about.

Basit claimsit became challenging for him to convince any Indian journalist to write an article in favour of Kashmir's"self-determination", until he met De who "agreed" and in one of her columns wrote "Now the time has come to resolve this issue once and for all through a plebiscite".

Reacting to the ex-envoy's sensational claims, De, in a video on Twitter, said normally she would'velet this comment go without bothering to react "but it's very important to nail lies."