State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel, reacting to Pakistan’s decision to evict the illegal Afghan refugees from the country, said that Pakistan has been an important stopover for the Afghan refugees who are fleeing Afghanistan.
Briefing the newsmen in Washington on Tuesday, Vedant Patel said: “Pakistan has been an important partner when it has come to the resettlement of Afghans who are fleeing and looking to resettle. They’ve been an important stopover in that process and we’ll just leave it at that.”
Meanwhile, John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, addressing a news conference said that the Canadian allegations regarding India’s involvement in the killing of a pro-Khalistan leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, are serious and need to be investigated fully.
He said, the claims made by Canada were discussed when India’s visiting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met here last week.
“We’ve been clear, these allegations are serious, they need to be fully investigated and of course, as we’ve said before, we urge India to participate actively in that investigation,” he said.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in Surrey, British Columbia province of Canada in June, this year.
