Pakistan Says,Didn't Snub India Over Bulletproof Car for SAARC Summit

Pakistan Says,Didn't Snub India Over Bulletproof Car for SAARC Summit

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 KATHMANDU: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the use of a bulletproof car provided by rival India for next week’s summit of South Asian leaders in Kathmandu, a Nepalese official said Monday.

Sharif “will be bringing his own car… all other vehicles for (visiting) heads of countries have come from India”, said foreign ministry spokesperson Khaga Nath Adhikari.

Adhikari denied the move was a snub specifically targeted at India, whose tense ties with Pakistan have worsened since October over some of the worst cross-border firing in years.

“It’s not that they have refused to use an Indian car… when the US president travels, he also brings his own car, it’s not an issue,” he told AFP.

"No car was offered by India to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif so there was no question of turning down the offer," the Dawn newspaper's website reported today, citing foreign office spokeswoman Tasneem Asla.

On Tuesday, an official in Nepal said that Mr Sharif "will be bringing his own car." Nepal foreign ministry spokesman Khaga Nath Adhikari had added, " All other vehicles for (visiting) heads of countries have come from India."

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit will see the leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Pakistan meet in Kathmandu on November 26 and 27.

Recent exchanges of fire across the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, which both countries administer in part but claim in full, have killed at least 20 civilians and forced thousands to flee their homes.