By IANS,
New Delhi : India is pursuing with Pakistan the killing of Capt. Saurabh Kalia during the 1999 Kargil conflict, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Sunday.
“We are handling it in an appropriate manner and we will pursue it. Now we are pursuing it with Pakistan at the moment,” Antony told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik, upon his arrival in New Delhi Friday, had said he was not sure whether Capt. Kalia “was killed by a Pakistani bullet or by the weather”.
Malik Saturday defended his comments on Capt. Kalia, saying he was quoted out of context.
Capt. Kalia of the Jat regiment and five soldiers were captured by Pakistani troops and held captive from May 15 to June 7 in 1999. The six soldiers were brutally tortured and shot dead.
Capt. Kalia’s father N.K. Kalia has taken his son’s torture-killing to the Supreme Court, saying Pakistan should be asked to apologise.
He has also approached the United Nations Human Rights Commission, asking it to probe his son’s killing as a war crime.
N.K. Kalia has been pressing the defence ministry, the army headquarters, external affairs ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office for over a decade to exert pressure on Pakistan to punish the Pakistani soldiers responsible for the act in violation of the Geneva Conventions.