New Delhi: India sent its minister of state for external affairs, Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd), as its representative to the Pakistan National Day celebrations at the Pakis-tan high commission in New Delhi on Monday evening, despite Hurriyat leaders, including Mir-waiz Umer Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik, also attending the event.

This development comes despite objections last year over confabulations between the Pakistan high commissioner and Hurriyat separatists that led to the scrapping of foreign secretary-level talks last August by New Delhi.

The Modi government’s move to send a representative raised eyebrows and triggered a massive controversy since India did not prevent the Hurriyat leaders from attending the event.

After attending the function, Gen. Singh issued a series of intriguing tweets defining “disgust” and “duty” indicating that he may have been unhappy at being deputed to it.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his Pakistan counterpart, Mr Nawaz Sharif, that an atmosphere free of terror and violence was requ-ired for resolving all outstanding issues through bilateral dialogue.