The Government of India should take up seriously with Islamabad the killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Thursday.
A ceasefire agreement since 2003 worked well for 10 years. “But incidents like killing of soldiers can seriously affect the peaceful border we have had so far. We want relations to improve for which this should stop.” Such incidents could affect the bilateral relations and the government should, therefore, take up the issue seriously with Pakistan.
Mr. Karat was here to participate in a meeting convened in connection with the centenary celebrations of legendary communist leader P. Sundaraiah. Mr. Karat, along with Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, recalled the contributions made by Sundaraiah toward the strengthening of the Communist movement in the country, particularly in the South.
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Referring to the Delhi gang-rape, he said it was not an isolated incident. Instances of sexual assaults were ever-increasing. There were 21,000 cases registered in 2011 alone, suggesting that many such incidents generally went unnoticed. Mr. Yechury criticised the government for the first-of-its-kind announcement, hiking the rail fares a few weeks before the budget session. Efforts were on to cut subsidies further, increase the diesel, kerosene and gas prices in the name of steps to reduce fiscal deficit.
CPI(M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu presided over the meeting.