ISLAMABAD – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Friday thatdespite continuous goodwill gestures from Pakistan, India still wants toescalate tensions with the country.
Speaking on the floor of the Parliament, the foreign minister acknowledgedthe opposition’s call for the release of Pakistani prisoners in India andsaid that this matter was a ‘humanitarian’ one. Qureshi told the NationalAssembly that Pakistan has actively been taking up the issue of releasingPakistani prisoners in India.
The minister said that Pakistan had earlier released the Indian pilot as agoodwill gesture. “Knowing that India is not budging and is not beingcooperative in handing over our fishermen, Pakistan released 360 Indianprisoners in April,” Qureshi added.
He further said that despite these goodwill gestures, India wants toescalate tension with Pakistan. Qureshi added that this was witnessed bythe whole world after India tried to escalate the situation followingPulwama incident. He continued that the whole world knows that Pakistan hadno hand in the Pulwama attack.
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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Andleeb Abbas told the NA session that 585Pakistani prisoners including 210 fishermen are languishing in Indianjails. She further said that India will be releasing four Pakistaniprisoners on Tuesday.
