Sidhu hug irks Amarinder

Chandigarh/Attari: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Sunday ticked off Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu for hugging Pakistan army chief, who, he said, was responsible for the killings of Indian soldiers on the border, even as the cricketer-turned-politician defended his action.

Chandigarh/Attari, Aug. 19: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday ticked off Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu for hugging Pakistan army chief, who, he said, was responsible for the killings of Indian soldiers on the border, even as the cricketerturned-politician defended his action.

“I think it was wrong of him (Sidhu) to have shown the affection he did for the Pakistan army chief. I am not in its favour... the fact is that the man (Sidhu) should understand that our soldiers are being killed everyday. My own regiment lost one major and two jawans a few months ago,” said Amarinder Singh, a retired officer of the Indian Army's Sikh Regiment.

The chief minister was replying to reporters' questions on Sidhu hugging General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the swearing-in of Imran Khan as Pakistan prime minister in I s l a m a b a d yesterday.

Sidhu was the only Indian who attended Khan's swearingin ceremony.

Sidhu, who returned from Pakistan via the Wagah-Attari border today, defended hugging Bajwa by posing a counterquestion.

“If someone (Pak army chief) comes to me and says that we belong to the same culture and that we’ll open the route to Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib (in Pakistan) on first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev's 550th birth anniversary, what else I could do?” he said.