No plan to discontinue people-to-people contact says FS Jaishankar on Indo-Pak ties

With various film bodies imposing a ban on Pakistan actors after the Uri attack, government Wednesday said people-to-people contact would continue and there was no plan to stop it.

This was conveyed by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs during discussions on Indo-Pak relations with a specific reference to surgical strikes across the LoC on September 29. “People-to-people contact would continue and there was no plan to stop it,” he told the panel.

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In the aftermath of the Uri terror attack last month in which 19 Indian jawans were killed, the MNS issued an ultimatum to Pakistani artistes to leave India. They also threatened to stop the screening of films featuring artistes from Pakistan.

Subsequently, Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association passed a motion to ban the artistes from the neighbouring country. The Cinema Owners Exhibitors Association of India recently decided not to screen the films with Pakistani actors in four states—Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa.