Istanbul, Dec 9 (IANS) Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday boycotted the speech by Indian Minister V.K Singh over Kashmir at the Heart of Asia Conference here.

As soon as Singh started speaking at the Heart of Asia Conference, which aims to promote durable peace and stability in Afghanistan, the Pakistan Foreign Minister left his seat and walked out of the conference.

He boycotted the Indian minister's speech in a mark of protest over India's move to revoke special status for Kashmir, according to tweets posted by Pakistani officials from the venue.

In September, Qureshi had similarly boycotted Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's speech at a SAARC ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

As soon as Jaishankar had got up to speak, the Pakistani minister left the room. Once Jaishankar finished his address and left, Qureshi had made his re-entry.

Earlier on Monday, the two-day Eighth Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process was inaugurated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani.

Erdogan, in his address, said there is need to support Afghanistan in its difficult times.

The theme of the conference is 'Peace, Partnership and Prosperity'.
The initiative "aims to enhance regional cooperation towards Afghanistan," the Turkish foreign ministry said.

During the meeting, Turkey will hand over its co-chairmanship, which it assumed in 2017 at the 7th Ministerial Conference in Baku, to Tajikistan.

The Heart of Asia -- Istanbul Process -- is a regional initiative of Afghanistan and Turkey, that was launched in 2011.

It has two chairs with Afghanistan as the permanent chair, and a co-chair from among the member states that shifts each year.

"The process aims to promote regional security, economic and political cooperation centered on Afghanistan through dialogue and confidence building measures," according to the organization's website.

The first ministerial conference of the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process was in 2011.

The event is being attended by the foreign ministers and high-ranking representatives of 15 participating countries, 16 supporting countries and 12 supporting regional and international organizations of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process, according to a statement.

The conference will adopt and issue a declaration with renewed commitments to the visions of the process.

The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was launched in 2011 and its "core objective" is to promote "durable peace and stability in Afghanistan."

The members are Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkey.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Former India international Robin Uthappa's century followed by Ponnam Rahul's 97-run knock handed Kerala an upper hand against Delhi in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group C tie as the hosts were 276/3 at the end of the first day at the St Xavier's College Ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

Opting to bat, Kerala got off to a safe and steady start as openers Jalaj Saxena (32) and Rahul shared a 68-run stand for the first wicket before the latter and Uthappa were involved in a 118-run partnership for the second wicket. After Rahul's fall, Uthappa kept Kerala going, stiching 90 runs with skipper Sachin Baby (36 batting). For the visitors, Pradeep Sangwan, Vikas Mishra and Tejas Baroka picked a wicket each.

In Agartala, Tripura were 263/8 against Jharkhand, thanks to Pratyush Singh's 40, skipper Milind Kumar' 59 and tailender Harmeet Singh's unbeaten effort of 55. For Jharkhand, Ajay Yadav, Ashish Kumar and Anukul Roy scalped couple of wickets each.

In Dehradun, Uttarakhand bundled out Jammu and Kashmir for a paltry 182 runs but were also reeling at 64/7 and now trail by 118 runs at their home -- Abhimanyu Cricket Academy ground.

In Rohtak, opener Shubham Rohilla and Shivam Chauhan smashed 117 each to power Haryana to 279/3 against Maharashtra on a lively track. For the visitors, Samad Fallah, Anupam Sanklecha and Pradeep Dadhe picked a wicket each.

In Raipur, Odisha bundled out hosts Chhatisgarh for just 134 runs, courtesy Rajesh Mohanty's 6/47. Replying back, the visitors were 48/3 when stumps were drawn for the day.

Hyderabad were all out for 233 runs against Gujarat at home when the day ended. Kolla Sumanth contributed with 69 runs while Chama V Milind chipped in with 47 runs for the hosts. For Gujarat, leggie Piyush Chawla picked three for 61 while Roosh Kalaria, Chintan Gaja and Arzan Nagwaswalla bagged two wickets each.

In Jaipur, a complete bowling show witnessed Punjab put Rajasthan on the mat at 256/9 as Siddarth Kaul scalped 3/68 while Baltej Singh and Sanvir Singh bagged a couple of wickets each. Ashwani Kumar and Mayank Markande took a wicket apiece.

Vidarbha's Aditya Sarwate (4/50) and Rajneesh Gurbani (3/72) and Yash Thakur (2/44) rattled the Andhra batting line-up to bundle them out for 211 runs. In return, Vidarbha were 26/0 when the proceedings ended on the first day.

Saurashtra wrapped Himachal Pradesh's innings for a meagre 120 runs as Jaydev Unadkat, Chirag Jani and Prerak Mankad struck thrice each. However, Saurashtra batters were back to back to pavillion in the same way and were reeling at 93/7, trailing by 27 runs, when the day ended.

In Dindigul, couple of half centuries by Devdutt Padikkal (78) and Pavan Deshpande (65) took Karnataka to 259-6 against Tamil Nadu at stumps. For Tamil Nadu, Manimaran Siddharth picked two wickets for 33 runs.

In Meerut, Railways were 244/8 at stumps against uttar Pradesh as Dinesh Mor, Navneet Virk and Arindam Ghosh contributed with 89, 58 and 42 runs respectively. For the hosts, Yash Dayal scalped three for 47 runs while Ankit Rajpoot and Shivam Mavi bagged couple of wickets each.

In Baroda, an all-round batting effort propelled Mumbai, the most successful team in the history of Ranji Trophy with 41 titles, to 362/8 against the hosts. Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur and an unbeaten Shams Mulani contributed with scores of 66, 79, 64 and 56* while Bhargav Bhatt was the most successful bowler for the host with figures of 3/110.

Skipper Puneet Bisht's ton (125) followed by Sanjay Yadav's 61 powered Meghalaya to 268/9 against Nagaland when the day ended in the Plate Group match. Imliwati Lemtur was the pick of the bowlers for Nagaland with stunning figures of 7/48.

In the clash between Manipur and Mizoram, the former's Rex Singh stole the limelight as he first emerged with magnificient figures of 8/22 as the opposition was bundled out for just 65 runs. In return, opener Chingangbam Singh's 89 and Rex (58 batting) put Manipur on driving seat as they were 255/7 when stumps were drawn, taking a healthy 190-run lead.

Minnows Sikkim on the other side were all out for 136 runs before Goa rode Smit Patel's 53 and Amit Verma's unbeaten 34 to end the day at 124-3, trailing by 12 runs with seven wickets in hand.

Shresth Nirmohi's five-wicket haul followed by Jaskaran Singh's 2/17 and Bipul Sharma's 2/21 dismantled Arunachal Pradesh's batting attack as the entire team was back to the dressing room for 147 runs. In return, hosts Chandigarh were comfortably placed at 236/1, thanks to openers Arslan Khan (119) and Shivam Bhambri's (105) twin tons.

In Patna, Sagar Udeshi 6/40 saw Bihar succumbing at 173 runs before Subramanian Anand (39) and S. Karthik (21) gave Puducherry a safe start as the visitors were 62 for no loss.

--IANS
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