Yoga Day in Pakistan confined to Indian High Commission premises

Islamabad, Jun 21 : As the world today celebrated the inaugural International Day of Yoga, in Pakistan it remained confined to the premises of Indian High Commission here with the staff of the mission along with other foreign diplomats in the country performing ‘asanas’. The members of the diplomatic community in Pakistan and staff of the Indian High Commission performed various Yoga postures in the premises of the mission to celebrate the ancient Indian spiritual practice. The event started at 7 am and went on for two hours. Speaking on the occasion, High Commissioner T C A Raghavan highlighted the importance of the International Yoga Day and the concept of Yoga. There was some initial initiative by Pakistani authorities to mark the day, but it was cancelled later.Pakistan had rejected visa to an Indian Yoga teacher who was being sent for preparations of events planned for the International Yoga Day. After the cancellation of the visa to the Yoga instructor, India had decided to organise an in-house event at its High Commission to mark the day. The UN General Assembly, at the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had adopted a unanimous resolution last year that declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga, co-sponsored by 177 countries.