Despite the rise in infiltration bids at the India-Pakistan border, the government has ruled out putting the liberalised visa agreement with Pakistan on hold. Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who had earlier defended the peace initiatives being taken with Islamabad despite its reluctance to act against 26/11 culprits, once again on Thursday defended the move to forge closer ties with that country through the new visa regime.
“Whatever agreement has been entered into, it will be carried on. There is no rethinking on visa agreement,” the home minister said. His seemingly soft response comes as a time when India is upset with Pakistan and tension has escalated along the Indo-Pak border following the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistani troops. It may be recalled that Mr Shinde and Pakistan interior minister A. Rehman Malik had jointly operationalised the new visa agreement in December despite Mr Malik’s clean chit to LeT patron and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in the Mumbai terror attacks.
Now, confirming the presence of the 26/11 mastermind in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) days before the killing of two Indian soldiers, Mr Shinde said, “'Hafiz Saeed had entered the PoK area and talked to some people”. He said the information about the movement of Saeed in PoK was received by intelligence agencies about four to five days back and the government was trying to get details of his visit.
According to the intelligence reports, Saeed had visited PoK to set up LeT’s Border Action Teams to facilitate infiltration of militants and target securitymen at the border.
When asked whether militants were involved in carrying out the raid on Indian Army soldiers, Mr Shinde said, “I do not have that information. But we are very keen to get such information. We are on the line.”
However, the home minister said infiltrators could have been involved in some of the recent attacks on Indian soldiers.