Evidence of Pak supporting Sikh militants surfaces

Photographic evidence has emerged that Pakistan based terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad and Jamaat-ud-Dawah are backing Sikh militants with an aim to malign India, as LeT's chief Hafiz Saeed is seen with Sikh militant leader Gopal Singh Chawla in Lahore.

Gopal Singh Chawla, under the instructions from the Pakistani authorities, recently stopped Indian officials from entering Gurudwara Panja Sahib on April 14 (Baisakhi day).

Earlier on April 12, the officials were also stopped from meeting the Sikh pilgrims when they reached Wagah -- the first station when a train crosses over to Pakistan.

The embassy officials went to meet the Indian pilgrims as a standard practice to help them out with consular duties and emergencies.

A group of around 1,800 Indian pilgrims reached Pakistan to visit the shrines on the occasion of Baisakhi, which marks the 320th birth anniversary of the Khalsa.

The visit of pilgrims takes place under a bilateral agreement on facilitating religious visits.

To run Pakistan's anti-India propaganda, the Sikh militants also placed posters of Sikh Referendum 2020 in Parikarma of Gurudwara Panja Sahib, the holy Sikh shrine.

India said High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria, who was to greet the pilgrims on Baisakhi, was also 'compelled' to return for unspecified security reasons while on his way to Gurdwara Panja Sahib.

The ministry of external affairs, in a statement described it, as an 'inexplicable diplomatic discourtesy' in violation of the Vienna Convention.

This also violated the 1992 bilateral protocol on the treatment of each other's diplomats, which the two countries 'reaffirmed' recently, said the statement.

Photograph: Reuters