India said it urged Pakistan against meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders ahead of rare high-level talks between the two countries.
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“The insistence on meeting Hurriyat as a precondition is also a complete departure from the Ufa understanding”. Pakistan sees no reason to depart from this established practice.
India called off peace talks with Pakistan a year ago after Islamabad consulted the separatists before a meeting between their foreign secretaries. Despite taking a clearly inalienable position over the issue, no side seems willing to unilaterally cancel the dialogue.
Majority-Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought three wars since becoming separate nations in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in part.
“The Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders are genuine stakeholders in efforts to find a lasting solution of the Kashmir dispute”. The party said the separatists are living in a free country and they have every right to visit any part of India.
Just one day is left to go for the scheduled National Security Advisor (NSA)-level talks between India and Pakistan, but the fate of the dialogue is now hanging by a thread. But unfortunately, India’s foreign policy is being decided by media channels… Recalling India’s cancellation of talks with Pakistan, Farooq said it was a chance wasted.
“In Ufa both PMs agreed on a meeting of NSAs to discuss all issues connected to terrorism”.
As New Delhi and Islamabad hardened their postures, a White House official hoped that the two NSAs would address all bilateral issues, including “disputed” Kashmir, in a direct manner.
“In fact, Pakistan has always demonstrated its belief in the dialogue process and is prepared to engage in meaningful talks with India, to resolve all outstanding issues that have bedeviled relations between the two countries, for the past many decades”, he said.
The wording of the Pakistani FO statement, nevertheless, indicated that Aziz was unlikely to travel to New Delhi as scheduled.
According to India, after Ufa, there was a sharp increase in unprovoked firings from the Pakistani side and also the Gurdaspur and Udhampur attacks.
In Lucknow, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “We are firm on our stand that whatever talks, dialogue are held with Pakistan, that should only and only be on terrorism”.
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Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit greets Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq during Eid Milan. This provocative action was completely in consonance with Pakistan’s desire to evade its commitment in Ufa to engage in a substantive discussion on terrorism, ” the MEA said.
