Pak PM implores Modi to give peace a chance

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday urged his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to 'give peace a chance.'

In a statement, Mr Khan said in his meeting with Narendra Modi in December 2015, they had agreed that since poverty alleviation was a priority for their region, they would not allow any terrorist incident to derail peace efforts.

He, however, said long before Pulwama, these efforts were derailed in September 2018 and sadly, now peace remains elusive due to elections in India. The prime minister urged Narendra Modi to ‘give peace a chance.’

Previously, Mr Modi softened his tone and recalled his telephonic conversation with his Pakistani counterpart after he won the general elections in 2018. “When Pakistan got a new Prime Minister, I congratulated him. Imran Khan had said to me that he was son of a Pathan and will stand by his words,” he said.

Mr Modi's words came after Mr Khan's address to the nation in which he said that India blamed Pakistan for the bombing without any evidence. Mr Khan asked India to leave its “judge, jury and execution” approach. “War is easy to start but difficult to end as it does not remain in human hands afterwards. It is not a sane approach to start a war,” he added.

Earlier, India threatened to isolate Pakistan on the international level and then claimed it would stop the flow of water into the country. Union minister for water resources Nitin Gadkari said the government led by Mr Modi had taken the decision to block the water flow to Pakistan.

The Pakistan-India ties nosedived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place.

The nuclear-armed neighbours, having fought three wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947, regularly trade allegations of harassment and espionage against diplomats.

Tensions between Pakis-tan and India have been high since the killing of a Kashmiri fighter, Burhan Wani, in July 2016. An attack on Indian forces in September 2016 — whuch killed 19 soldiers in Uri area of Kashmir —  further heightened tensions.

India also claimed it had carried a "surgical strike" to avenge the Uri attack. Pakistan rejected the Indian assertion