Mr. Aziz is expected to meet the Hurriyat leaders at the reception after, and not before his scheduled talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.
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Media reports on Wednesday claimed that the Pakistan High Commission’s invite has gone to key leaders of the Hurriyat, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Nayeem Khan and Yasin Malik.
The invite brings back memories of the foreign secretary-level talks that were called off by India in August last year after the Pakistan high commissioner held consultations with the separatists.
The invite to the separatists will also be seen in the context of a series of unpleasant developments in the country, which the NDA government sees as “provocations” from Pakistan ahead of the talks.
The meeting was briefed that no agenda had been formulated yet for the upcoming talks between the National Security Advisers (NSAs) of Pakistan and India due in less than a week in New Delhi.
The opposition and Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader, have said the dialogue should not be held when Pakistan’s targeting of India continues unabated. “A decision on whether to accept the invitation will be taken at a meeting of the Hurriyat Conference”.
Premier Nawaz meets Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif at the Prime Minister House. The August 23-24 meeting between Aziz and Doval follows an agreement between Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Russian Federation last month.
Akbar said the stand taken by Pakistan was welcome as “they have asserted that there will be no dialogue with India without inclusion of Kashmir issue”.
“We have met Pakistan officials in the past and nothing has changed in recent times to force a rethink”, the sources said. Modi, speaking at the UN the next day, responded saying that India was not opposed to talks, but would not participate “in the shadow of terror” and that it was upto Pakistan to “create a conducive atmosphere for talks”.
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The participants also discussed the possible threats to high profile personalities in Punjab and agreed to enhance intelligence coordination in order to counter terrorism in the province.
