ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has hit out at his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj over her disgraceful comments against him.
Qureshi slammed Sushma for ‘dragging his comment towards Sikh sentiments’ calling it a deliberate attempt to misrepresent and mislead.
The exchange of harsh words started after Qureshi, in his address to the ceremony following the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking, said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had put India in a conundrum with the move to open the Kartarpur border corridor. PM Imran had “bowled a googly at India by opening the Kartarpur border corridor”.
The words were not taken light-heartedly in India with its Minister of External Affairs Shushma Swaraj snapping back in a tweet saying that India was not trapped by Pakistan’s googlies.
“Mr Foreign Minister of Pakistan – Your ‘googly’ remarks in a dramatic manner has exposed none but YOU. This shows that you have no respect for Sikh sentiments. You only play ‘googlies’,” she stated in a tweet.
“Our two Sikh Ministers went to Kartarpur Sahib to offer prayers in the Holy Gurudwara,” the Indian external affairs minister tweeted later.
In response to Sushma Swaraj, the Pakistani foreign minister on Sunday said that relating his comments to “Sikh sentiments” was a deliberate attempt to misrepresent and mislead.
“What I said was strictly with reference to bilateral interaction with the Indian government. We have deep respect for Sikh sentiments and no amount of distortions or controversies would change it,” Qureshi said in a tweet.
He further said that “in deference to the long-standing desires of our Sikh brethren, we decided to open the Kartarpur corridor. We have taken this historic initiative in good faith and will carry it forward in good faith”.