ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called the Kashmir issue, the main pillar of Islamabad's foreign policy, in fresh attacks on India. Addressing the concluding session of the three-day conference of Pakistani envoys in Islamabad, Sharif called upon the Pakistani diplomatic corps to canvass opinion in world capitals on J&K and to tell them that the "Kashmir issue is not the internal matter of India".
In a start to Pak diplomatic offensive, he said that the "desire of freedom is running in the blood of Kashmiris." While Sharif's speech was in line with the policy the government has followed, it did raise a few eyebrows as it coincided with the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh's presence in Islamabad for the SAARC meet. He also added that the "movement" in Kashmir "is running into the bloods of third generation of Kashmiri people and the world has itself seen its intensity in the wake of July 8."
Just last month Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had accused Islamabad of an "unabashed embrace of terrorism" and warned that its stated goal of detaching Kashmir from India will "not be realised to the end of eternity."
