India says...
Later, investigations by the Punjab police showed the grenades were Pakistani-made. The attack, Punjab police said, had been instigated by Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) and leftover pro-khalistan elements sheltered by Pakistan.
Interestingly, among those who prevented Indian diplomats was the controversial figure Gopal Singh Chawla, who has earlier been seen with Hafiz Sayeed of the Jammat-ud-dawa who is wanted in India for several terror strikes, including the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror strikes in which 166 people were killed and over 300 were injured.
“India has today lodged a strong protest with the government of Pakistan that despite having been granted prior travel permission by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, the Consular officials of the High Commission of India in Islamabad were harassed and denied access on November 21 and 22 at Gurudwara Nankana Sahib and Gurudwara Sacha Sauda,” the MEA said in a statement.
New Delhi also said that “Pakistan has been called upon to take all measures to not allow its territory to be used for any hostile propaganda and support for secessionist tendencies against India in keeping with the commitments made under the Simla Agreement, 1972 and endorsed in the Lahore Declaration, 1999.”.
The Indian pilgrims are visiting Pakistan under a bilateral protocol.
“Pakistan has been reminded that such actions are not in consonance with the stated intentions of Pakistan to facilitate the visits of Indian Sikh pilgrims, especially as we commemorate the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji,” the MEA said.
The MEA called the denial of access an attempt to deflect attention from Pakistan’s violation of international legal instruments and conventions like the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Pakistan has been reminded that this is in contrast to the treatment meted out to their high commissioner and the consular officials in New Delhi who have been provided full access to meet the Pakistani pilgrims who are currently in India on a pilgrimage to Kalyar Sharif, the MEA said. for 25 seats.
Gandhi said the bifurcation “was no small decision” but former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress backed statehood for Telangana. “Politically, it was a loss for the party. Yet we had taken the decision in the larger interest of the people of Telangana,” she said.
Gandhi also reached out to the people of Andhra Pradesh, promising special category status to the state if the Congress returned to power at the Centre in next year’s general elections.
In March, Andhra chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu took his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) out of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after being denied special category status that would have qualified the state for special central grants. The TDP and the Congress are now fighting the state elections together in Telangana, which is going to the polls together with Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.
“purush pradhan sabha hain. Purush hi faisle karte hain. Mahilaye nahi karti”
(only men take decisions, not women). “But, later the same man evolves and is seen speaking against the diktats of the khap. This (transformation) happened over two years,” said Bakshi.
The documentary teaser was a part of the launch for the global ‘16 Days of Activism’ a campaign organised by the United Nations. To mark the launch of its opening campaign ‘orange the world’ aimed at ending violence against women, the UN House was completely lit up in orange.
Speaking on the occasion, Yuri Afanasiev, the United Nation’s Resident Coordinator in India said volence against women is one of history’s “gravest and most widespread” injustices, and that nothing short of a global movement is required to challenge it. “At least two thirds of all women have faced sexual harassment at some point in their lives. The UN reaffirms our zero tolerance to any form of gender-based violence, and stands in solidarity with voices of women and for gender equality,” he said.