DHAKA: Bangladesh on Wednesday pulled out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit to be held in Islamabad, a day after India said it was boycotting the event over a deadly cross-border attack on a military base.
\nBhutan and Afghanistan were also reported to be withdrawing from the November summit after India announced late Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not take part, citing \u201cincreasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region\u201d.
\nRelations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have deteriorated sharply since a deadly attack on a military base in disputed Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on militants from across the border.
\nPakistan denies any involvement in the attack, in which 18 Indian soldiers died.
\nBut Modi, under pressure to act after the worst such attack in more than a decade, has threatened to make it a pariah state. On Wednesday junior Bangladesh foreign minister Shahriar Alam confirmed to AFP by text message that Bangladesh would not attend the Saarc summit.
\nIndian media cited Dhaka as blaming \u201cthe growing interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh by one country\u201d, and said Bhutan and Afghanistan were also planning to withdraw. The country was not named, but Bangladesh has in the past accused Pakistan of interference for protesting the execution of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders found guilty of war crimes.
\nSouth Asia analyst Ashok Malik said the pull-outs would have little practical impact on Pakistan but could push it closer to rival regional power China.
\n\u201cIt basically scores a symbolic and a political victory. As for Pakistan, this will push it even closer to China,\u201d said Malik, head of the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation’s regional studies initiative.
\nResponding to India’s move, Pakistan said it remained \u201ccommitted to peace and regional cooperation\u201d and accused New Delhi of perpetrating \u201cterrorism\u201d on its soil.
\n\u201cAs for the excuse used by India, the world knows that it is India that has been perpetrating and financing terrorism in Pakistan,\u201d tweeted foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakariya late Wednesday, citing the capture of an Indian intelligence officer in Baluchistan earlier this year.
\nPakistan has repeatedly accused India of interference in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is afflicted by militancy and a separatist insurgency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA: Bangladesh on Wednesday pulled out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit to be held in Islamabad, a day after India said it was boycotting the event over a deadly cross-border attack on a military base. Bhutan and Afghanistan were also reported to be withdrawing from the November summit after India […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n