Pakistan’s high commissioner to New Delhi had invited Kashmiri leaders for a meeting with Aziz. “On the other hand, India only has propaganda against Pakistan“, he said. Now with another high-level talk scheduled to take place between paramilitary forces and military officials, analysts are hoping for some sort of breakthrough in the stalemate.
Advertisement
Hours later, Pakistan’s foreign ministry issued its statement, saying it had come to the conclusion that the proposed talks would not serve any objective if conducted on the basis of the conditions laid down by Swaraj.
Main objective of any dialogue btw India and Pakistan is to reduce tensions and restore trust as a first step towards normalization.
India had described the Pakistan move to cancel the talks as very unfortunateand refuted Islamabad’s charge that it was setting any preconditions.
Earlier, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said that the leaders of the two countries had agreed in Ufa for talks over terrorism and violence to create conducive atmosphere for dialogue over bilateral contentious issues.
The upcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) session may provide a platform to Islamabad and New Delhi to look into options for maintaining some kind of contact.
India’s determination to not allow the separatists to be a party to the engagement was reflected in the detention of separatist leaders Shabir Shah and Bilal Lone, among others, in the Capital.
Meanwhile in an interview, the Pakistan’s adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has asked the worldwide community to take notice of the cancellation of talks by India with Pakistan.
“We have seen that what Pakistan was claiming that there were preconditions led by the Indian dispensation was absolutely wrong”.
“This is a combined game of both the separatists and Pakistan as they never wanted peace to prevail in the state of Jammu and Kashmir”, Singh said. And I quote: ‘India and Pakistan have a collective responsibility to ensure peace and promote development.
On Thursday, Kashmir leaders including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were detained in a bid to prevent them from traveling to Delhi.
Advertisement
India has been asserting that they will stick to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Ufa (Russia) that the talks will be fully focused on terrorism.
