Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday slammed India's "very arrogant and knee-jerk" decision to recall its ambassador and sever transportation links with his country.
However the Pakistani leader, speaking on the third day of a trip to China, said his government would not retaliate.
"We regret the very arrogant and knee-jerk response of the Indian government," Musharraf said after a tour of the famous Grand Mosque in the ancient northern city of Xian, which was smothered in security for his visit.
Asked whether Pakistan would retaliate, he said: "No."
Troops and police lined many of the streets of Xian, where last weekend a bomb at a McDonald's restaurant, a short walk from the mosque, killed two people. No one has been arrested for the blast.
The Pakistani leader's trip to China, his country's closest ally, has been overshadowed by a simmering crisis with India over alleged Pakistani support for gunmen who attacked the Indian parliament on Dec. 13.
Tensions, already high amid a rash of troop build-ups, escalated late Friday with India's announcement it was withdrawing its ambassador from Pakistan and also severing rail and bus links.
Fourteen people died in the attack, which India has accused Pakistani intelligence of backing.
In a separate sign of support for his hosts, Musharraf also used the visit to the mosque to urge China's Muslims to be "very patriotic," giving clear backing for Beijing's controversial campaign against Islamic separatists in the tense Xinjiang region.
"Islam is a religion of peace and we don't believe in any violence and therefore you, being a part of China, have to be very patriotic and for the good of China, all Muslims in China [should] work for the good of China," Musharraf told the imam at the Grand Mosque.
That Musharraf has gone ahead with his trip despite the crisis with India shows the world China and Pakistan remain close allies, despite the formerly isolated South Asian country's involvement in Western plans for the future of Afghanistan, analysts say.
Meanwhile, an Indian court yesterday extended the judicial custody of three suspects arrested over the attack on the parliament.
The court extended judicial custody for another two weeks for three of the suspects while the police custody of a fourth suspect was extended another seven days, officials said.
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
RSS