The shoddy treatment of Pakistan’s human rights activist Ansar Burney, sent back by Indian authorities for not “inadequate documentation” has sullied the current bonhomie between the two neighbours.
NEW DELHI: The shoddy treatment of Pakistan’s human rights activist Ansar Burney, sent back by Indian authorities on Saturday for not “inadequate documentation” has sullied the current bonhomie between the two neighbours.
After the good atmospheric during foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Pakistan last month, this incident has once again triggered the mistrust and suspicion which has dogged India-Pakistan relations for decades. Mukherjee came away from Islamabad convinced that the top political leadership in Pakistan was ready to extend the hand of friendship and put relations back on track.
Though most Indian’s know that this kind of bungling by government agencies happen all the time, Pakistan as well as Burney is not convinced. They believe that officials in the home ministry was aware that he would be attending the conclave on terror and had deliberately humiliated him. In conversation with DNA after the incident, Burney had said it was a slap in the face for him.
Naturally so, considering that Burney a peacenik had done much for Indian prisoners in Pakistan. The home minister himself had welcomed him with open arms a couple of weeks ago and there was then no problems with his travel document.
For a man who worked tirelessly to get Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh released from a Pakistan jail, this was certainly not expected. He has also been in the forefront of efforts to help Sarabjeet Singh’s freedom. Sarabjit Singh has been given the death sentence for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast in Pakistan.
The friendly atmosphere between the Indian and Pakistani leadership following Mukherjee’s visit has been sullied by the Ansar Burney episode. For two neighbours with a historical baggage of hate and suspicion, it does not take much to get back to old ways.
On Monday, after the blast in front of the Danish embassy in Islamabad India released a statement saying that high commissioner Satya Brata Pal’s residence had been damaged though no one in the residence was injured. Pal himself was at home at that time.
The Danish embassy, which is not in the high security diplomatic enclave, was the obvious target of the terror attack but the effect of the blast shook windows in the high commissioner’s residence and broke some window panes.
“Yes, there has been some damage to the Indian High Commissioner’s residence. Fortunately, no one in the residence has been hurt in the incident,” foreign office spokesman Navtej Sarna said, after repeated queries about the incident.
Significantly the official statement stopped at that, without a line condemning the terror strike in the heart of the Pakistan capital, which is normally done in such cases. Are India and Pakistan going back to old ways? Only time will tell. But for the moment the Burney incident had cast a shadow on relations.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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