Headlines
India-Pakistan NSA talks called off
Jaipur, Aug 21
India on Friday called off the
NSA level talks with Pakistan after the latter decided to go ahead with
talks with Kashmiri separatist leaders.
External affairs ministry
spokesman Vikas Swarup said National Security Advisers Ajit Doval of
India and Sartaj Aziz of Pakistan were to discuss terrorism related
issues in New Delhi on August 23-24.
The spokesman said that
"unilateral imposition of new conditions and distortion of the agreed
agenda cannot be the basis for going forward" with the talks.
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Pakistan's foreign office said the Indian request that Sartaz Aziz, the
adviser on national security to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who will
reach New Delhi on August 23 to meet his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval,
should not meet the Hurriyat leaders was not acceptable.
Pakistan’s decision was conveyed to India's envoy in Islamabad.
"Kashmir
is a disputed territory as per the UN Security Council resolutions
which remain unimplemented," the statement said. "Pakistani leadership
has always interacted with the Kashmir/Hurriyat leadership during their
visits to India.
"Pakistan sees no reason to depart from this
established past practice. Hurriyat leaders are true representatives of
the Kashmiri people. Pakistan regards them as genuine stakeholders in
the efforts to find a lasting solution of the Kashmir dispute," it said.
Pakistan's
response casts doubts over the Doval-Aziz talks, which emerged from a
July meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi in Ufa, Russia, and could have helped resume the suspended
bilateral dialogue process.
The foreign office said Pakistan was
willing to attend the August 23-24 meeting of the National Security
Advisers "without any pre-conditions".
Earlier, New Delhi told Pakistan on Thursday that it would "not be appropriate" for Aziz to meet Hurriyat leaders.
Earlier
on Friday, India said it wanted the talks between the NSAs to go ahead
and that it had sought clarity on the agenda, "which should be held as
per the Ufa joint statement".
Pakistan's political and military
leadership met on Friday in Islamabad. Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting,
also attended by army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif. Aziz separately met Lt.
Gen. Zia-ur-Rehman, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
agency.
Pakistan, however, reiterated its wish to resolve all outstanding issues with India through dialogue.
In
Jammu and Kashmir, Hurriyat leaders questioned India's move asking Aziz
not to meet them. Hurriyat leaders have been invited to meet Aziz at a
reception organised by the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.
A
spokesman for hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who
favours Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, told IANS that he
would meet Aziz on August 24 separately.
Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik pointed out that Pakistani
delegations visiting India had always met Hurriyat leaders, and so there
was nothing new in Islamabad's move.
Jammu and Kashmir's ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, felt it would be best for
Hurriyat to stay away from New Delhi.
Waheed ur-Rehman Parra, the
political analyst to Chief Minister Mufit Mohmmaed Sayeed, told IANS
that the India-Pakistan talks were important.
He said it was up
to the Hurriyat to decide whether it wanted to promote the talks with
their absence from New Delhi or discourage it by going there.
India
said a meeting between Aziz and Hurriyat leaders would not be in
keeping with the spirit and intent of the understanding Nawaz Sharif and
Modi reached to jointly combat terrorism.
Pakistan said that
"all outstanding issues, including Kashmir and other disputes, as well
as terrorism and other CBMs will be discussed between the two countries.
"India's
insistence to introduce conditionalities and restrict the agenda for
the dialogue demonstrates a lack of seriousness on India's part to
meaningfully engage with Pakistan."
Indian officials say that
since the mandate for the NSAs was only to discuss terrorism-related
issues, Kashmir would not figure on the agenda, and thus Aziz's meeting
with Hurriyat leaders didn't make sense.
Indian officials also
say that the Pakistani invite to Kashmiri separatists was designed to
scuttle the NSA talks and follows a pattern of the Pakistani
military-intelligence establishment.
India called off the foreign
secretary talks in August last year after the Pakistani envoy invited
the Hurriyat leaders for a dialogue ahead of the talks. India says there
is no place for any third party in India-Pakistan talks.
(Ranjana Narayan can be contacted at [email protected])