Pakistan sends envoys to China, post surgical strikes by India

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has rushed envoys to its all-weather friend China hours after surgical strikes across LoC by the Indian Army hoping to enlist Beijing’s support in its confrontation with Delhi. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s special envoys Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar and Alam Dad Laleka, both MPs arrived in Beijing on Thursday.

“They are visiting China on the instructions of the Prime Minister to apprise the Chinese government of the deteriorating situation in Jammu and Kashmir. They met Liu Zhenmin, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. They also held a meeting with Cai Wu, Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese Communist Party,” according to a released issued today by the Pakistan government.

It may be recalled that Pakistan had sent its envoys to Beijing at the height of Kargil War in 1999. China, ahead of the BRICS Summit on October 15-16 in Goa that will be attended by its President, has taken a guarded position on the Uri terror attacks and surgical strikes, asking both sides to maintain restraint and enter into a bilateral dialogue.

However, Beijing is yet to back India’s request for lifting the veto from UN 1267 sanctions committee that seeks to ban JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar. India has blamed JeM for the Uri strikes as well. Meanwhile, even as the US State Department, post-surgical strikes, reiterated call for direct Indo-Pak communication to reduce tension in an indirect dig at Pakistan asked it to combat and delegitimize terrorist groups like LeT and the Haqqani Network, Jaishe-Mohammad echoing Delhi's sentiments.

"Our message to both sides has been the same, in terms of encouraging them to increase communication to deal with this threat and to avoid steps that escalate the tensions," US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said in the daily press briefing on Thursday.