Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 26, 2001
Shiv Sena, an alliance partner in
the NDA government, on Tuesday urged Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf
to bring alongwith him all Indian Prisoners of War (PoWs) during his coming
visit to India as a "goodwill gesture" even as another party leader asked
New Delhi not to accord a red carpet welcome to him.
"It would be a goodwill gesture
on the part of Gen Musharraf to bring alongwith him all the 54 PoWs rotting
in Pakistani jails since 1971," Sena's northern India chief Jai Bhagwan
Goyal told PTI.
Goyal also urged Islamabad to ensure
that Hindus in Pakistan were treated as equal citizens in the same way
as Muslims were treated in India, besides exerting its influence on the
ruling Taliban in Afghanistan to lift the dress code imposed on Hindus.
Meanwhile, in another statement,
party's city unit leader Abhimanyu Gulati asked the Atal Bihari Vajpayee
government not to accord a red carpet welcome to the Pakistan president.
"Mushharaf had not saluted Vajpayee
when the latter went on a bus trip to Lahore in February 1999. Therefore,
he too should not be accorded a red carpet reception," Gulati said.
