‘Disappointed by negative, arrogant response by India’, tweets Pakistan PM Imran Khan after talks called off

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Saturday he was disappointed that India at the “arrogant & negative response by India to my call for resumption of the peace dialogue”.

Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has hit out at India in angry tweets, alleging that the decision to call off foreign minister level talks is an “arrogant and negative response” to his offer for dialogue.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad.(AFP File Photo)

“Disappointed at the arrogant & negative response by India to my call for resumption of the peace dialogue. However, all my life I have come across small men occupying big offices who do not have the vision to see the larger picture,” he said in tweets in English and Urdu.

India on Friday cancelled a meeting it had announced just the day before between external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in New York citing the brutal killing of security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the recent release of a series of 20 postage stamps by the neighbouring country “glorifying a terrorist and terrorism”.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar also launched a frontal attack on Pakistan and its premier, saying “the evil agenda” of the neighbour has been exposed and the “true face of the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has been revealed to the world in his first few months in office”.

“In view of the changed situation, there will be no meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York,” he said.

Qureshi on Friday expressed disappointment at India calling off the meeting, alleging that “internal pressure” forced New Delhi to make the “unfortunate” move.

“It is unfortunate that India has not given a positive response. India has once again wasted an opportunity for peace,” he told the media in Islamabad, reported news agency PTI.

He said that it was important to sit and talk for the sake of peace and stability in the region, but India’s refusal “shows that the Indian government is facing internal pressure”.