Sikh Delegations from USA and Canada Meet Narendra Modi in New York

::dateline:Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Sikh delegations from USA and Canada in New York on Saturday.

Before the meeting, the delegations had said that they had a lot of hopes from Modi. The delegation said that it would request the Indian government to ensure justice in the 1984 riots case and bring the perpetrators to book.

Earlier in the day, Modi rebuffed Pakistan for raising the Kashmir issue at the UN and asserted that he was prepared to engage in a serious bilateral dialogue with it “without the shadow of terrorism” but asked it to create an “appropriate environment” for that.

Without making a direct reference to the strident speech of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif yesterday in which he had insisted on a plebiscite in Kashmir, Modi made it clear that “raising issues in this forum is not the way to make progress towards resolving issues between our two countries”.

In his maiden address to the 193-member UN General Assembly, the Indian leader underlined that his government placed the highest priority on advancing friendship and cooperation with its neighbours, including Pakistan.