NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party said here on Tuesday that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee should not travel to Islamabad in view of Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal's statement that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) could be involved in the killings by the United Liberation Front of Asom.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad took objection to Mr. Mukherjee planning a visit to Islamabad even as Mr. Jaiswal blamed the ISI for the Assam violence.

The Government should either rebut Mr. Jaiswal's statement or cancel Mr. Mukherjee's visit and, instead, send a junior official to Islamabad.

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks here on Monday that friendly relations between India, Pakistan and other neighbouring countries should develop to an extent that people could feel free to plan "to have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul," Mr. Prasad noted that even while he was saying this, Mr. Jaiswal was talking about Pakistan's complicity in the violence in Assam.

He reiterated the BJP's stand that the Government hold Pakistan to its agreement of January 2004, not to allow its territory to be used by militants for strikes against India.

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