Pakistan’s foreign office said the Indian request that Pakistan National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, who is scheduled to reach New Delhi on August 23 to meet NSA Ajit Doval, should not meet Hurriyat leaders was not acceptable. Indian government says that the talks were supposed to be confined to the issue of “terrorism” and it was not supposed that the Pakistan would hold talks with pro-freedom Kashmiri leaders ahead of talks with India.
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Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Geelani’s spokesman Ayaz Akbar said the meeting between Geelani and Aziz is scheduled for August 24 at 9.30am at Pakistan House, Tilak Marg, New Delhi.
Talks between the top security advisers of archrivals India and Pakistan have hit several roadblocks over the contentious Kashmir region before they’ve even started.
Pakistan said India’s refusal to engage in talks with Pakistan on this pretext was a repeat of what it did when it cancelled foreign secretary level talks in August past year.
For its part, Pakistan remains willing to attend the National Security Advisers(NSAs) meeting without any pre-conditions, he said in a statement.
The upcoming Indo-Pak NSA-level talks appeared to be virtually off Friday with the two countries locked in a confrontation over Kashmiri separatists leading to a blame game.
Pakistan has, in the past, described such meetings with pro-independence leaders as a “longstanding practice” to “facilitate meaningful discussions”.
“According to The Nation, attempt to physically restrain the Hurriyat from meeting with the Pakistan High Commission, would surely be a step too drastic by any standard – one taken based on sentimental outrage rather than sound strategic insight”.
He also said that talks and terrorism can never go together.
Speaking at an event here, 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”.
Meanwhile, some separatist leaders travelling to New Delhi were briefly detained in Srinagar and then released a few hours later.
To a question, the Speaker said that the Indian government did not want Pakistan to hold the CPC and had therefore linked their participation in the event to an invitation for the speaker of the assembly of the “Indian Occupied Kashmir”.
“We have made it clear to Pakistan that hosting of Kashmiri separatists will be contrary to the spirit of the Ufa understanding”.
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The “advice” that Aziz should refrain from meeting the Kashmiri separatists was conveyed on Thursday, the ministry said.
