Former Pak minister dismisses Modi’s claim as ‘strange story with no basis’

Islamabad, December 13

Pakistan's former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri on Wednesday dismissed as "a strange story with no basis" the claim made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Islamabad was interfering in the Gujarat Assembly polls.

"I am astonished. I had gone for dinner and I heard him saying that Pakistan is hatching a conspiracy," Kasuri, who served as Pakistan's Foreign Minister between November 2002 and November 2007, told Urdu language Samaa TV news channel.

Recalling that ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh, ex-vice president Hamid Ansari, ex-Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor, four former foreign secretaries and three former high commissioners to Pakistan and military analysts were present in the dinner, Kasuri asked, “Are they also part of Pakistan's conspiracy? It is a strange story with no basis. What else can I say.”

Addressing an election rally in Palanpur in Gujarat this week, Modi sought to suggest that Pakistan was trying to influence the assembly polls in the state. He claimed some Pakistani officials and Manmohan Singh met at then Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's house over dinner on December 6.

"The people who attended the private dinner were talking on India and Pakistan ties...," Kasuri asserted.

Kasuri also claimed that he even met sitting president of India during his last visit to the country.

"I have even met the former RAW chief in previous seminars. So does that imply, all of the people whom I met were conspirators?" he asked.

Kasuri said that he is invited to such seminars and events because of his association with the India-Pakistan peace process and work on Kashmir. — PTI