Guwahati: More people have been arrested in Assam for making anti-India and pro-Pakistan statements in the public forum. State chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma disclosed that 34 individuals have been arrested from different parts of Assam for defending Pakistan on Indian soil after the Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir, where 26 innocent Indian tourists were killed by the terrorists, some of whom came from Pakistan. Among the arrestees, one legislator (Aminul Islam of the All India United Democratic Front) and a journalist, few youths are also included. Currently remanded to judicial custody, the opposition MLA is booked on sedition charges as he publicly accused that the Pahalgam incident and 2019 Pulwama terror strike were ‘handiwork’ of the ruling elements. The outspoken saffron leader warned that those with larger involvements with the issue may also invite the National Security Act against.
The Union government in New Delhi had already sent a stern message to Islamabad with a major diplomatic offensive including the closure of integrated Attari-Wagah check-post, exemption of visa service to Pakistani nationals and suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which was signed in Karachi by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan President Mohammed Ayub Khan. Foreign ministry said in an official statement that the 1960 IWT will be held in abeyance with immediate effect until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency had taken over the case and started its probe. The security forces demolished nine houses belonging to the terrorists suspected to be involved with the Pahalgam attack and also detained around 2,000 people presumably as local sympathizers to the rebels of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist outfit.
The development also compelled Islamabad to postpone their foreign minister Ishaq Dar’s scheduled visit to Dhaka on April 27-28. The visit of Dar, who also serves as the deputy to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was assumed as an important initiative to improve Dhaka-Islamabad relation, seemingly an anti-New Delhi enterprise. The proposed flight between Dhaka and Karachi has also been postponed. No Pakistani flights are now operating to Kathmandu or Thimphu as well.
