Punjab team meets PM

A delegation of five Lok Sabha members from Punjab called on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to seek his intervention to mobilise international opinion against the brutal killing of two Sikhs by the Taliban in Pakistan and secure the release of another still held hostage.

Later,National Democratic Alliance chairman Lal Krishna Advani and senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj joined the MPs at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib where prayers were offered for the departed souls and safe release of the hostage. The delegation comprising Harshimrat Kaur Badal,Naresh Gujral,Tarlochan Singh,Avtar Singh Karimpuri and S S Ahluwalia impressed upon the PM the need for urgent and immediate steps by the Centre to stop such heinous crimes against humanity in Pakistan. They submitted a memorandum that said the Government of India must work towards putting pressure on Pakistan to act against the killers.

A spokesman of the delegation later regretted that the Union government had so far not activated its diplomatic channels with the kind of urgency demanded by this extraordinary development. He alleged that External Affairs Minister S M Krishna did not deem it necessary to meet the delegation and instead deputed an official to receive the memorandum. No Congress MP joined the delegation.