Pakistan’s Greeting Card Angers India

When relations are strained between two countries, even a greeting card can cause problems.

Salman Haider, India’s foreign secretary, summoned Pakistan’s envoy, Riaz Khokhar, to his office Friday to complain about New Year’s cards that Pakistani President Farooq Leghari had sent President Shanker Dayal Sharma and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

They contained a photograph showing the part of the northern Himalayan Kashmir region that is administered by Islamabad, said a Foreign Ministry statement.

Haider “conveyed India’s strong resentment at the discourtesy shown to the leaders by including such a photograph in the cards,” it said.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, a Muslimdominated region that is now divided between them by a cease-fire line.