Imran Khan slams India’s ‘arrogant and negative response’ over talks cancellation

ISLAMABAD: India’s decision to cancel rare talks with Islamabad was disappointing and “arrogant”, Imran Khan said Saturday, one day after New Delhi accused Pakistan’s prime minister of harbouring an “evil agenda”.nnIndia pulled the plug on a meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart set for next week on the sidelines of a major UN conference, just one day after saying it would go ahead.nnThe foreign ministry in New Delhi blamed the about-face on recent actions that had revealed Pakistan’s “evil agenda” and the “true face” of Khan, who hit back on Twitter Saturday.nn”Disappointed at the arrogant & negative response by India to my call for resumption of the peace dialogue,” he wrote.nn”However, all my life I have come across small men occupying big offices who do not have the vision to see the larger picture.”nnNew Delhi said it cancelled the talks after the “latest brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities” and the recent release of a series of Pakistani postage stamps “glorifying a terrorist (Burhan Wani) and terrorism”.nnIndia did not specify which killings it was referring to in its statement, but earlier this week, an Indian border guard in the disputed territory of Kashmir was killed and his body mutilated.nnThree policemen were then found dead on Friday after being abducted in Indian-administered Kashmir.nnPakistan also recently issued postage stamps of Burhan Wani, a charismatic Kashmiri militant commander killed by Indian troops in July 2016, whose death sparked a wave of violent protests in the territory.nnIndia has long accused Pakistan of arming rebel groups in Kashmir, a Himalayan territory divided between the two countries but claimed in full by both.n

n