This is apropos a Business Recorder news item "PM tells India's leadership: Don't equate freedom fighters with terrorists" carried by the newspaper on Tuesday. The prime minister seems to have taken a rather bold approach to the Kashmir issue by insisting that Burhan Wani, a Kashmiri youth killed by Indian forces, was a freedom fighter and the "pride of Kashmir".
The prime minister has also reportedly averred: "I am committed to the Kashmir cause. No power in the world can stop us from supporting the freedom struggle of Kashmiris." But the question is: why had he been soft-pedalling until recently? One must not lose sight of the fact that some of the India's opposition parties have questioned the credibility of the so-called surgical strikes premised their arguments on the widely held perception that the prime ministers of India and Pakistan enjoy very strong friendship and mutual respect.