Given India’s clear focus on terror, and its firm stand that there will be no talks on the Kashmir issue, the MEA said that whether India accepts Pakistan foreign secretary’s invitation for talks or not now depends on Pakistan.
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Underlining India’s position in an address to journalists, the Foreign Secretary also referred to the “centrality of the issue of terrorism” when discussing India’s difficulties in dealing with Pakistan within South Asia. “We have also conveyed that Government of India rejects in their entirety the self-serving allegations regarding the situation in J&K, which is an integral part of India where Pakistan has no locus standi”, official sources said.
FO Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said Pakistan was open to the idea of United Nations high commissioner visiting AJK.
In his speech that day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province after Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain talked about India-administered Kashmir.
“Access to OHCHR has been denied by India to Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”.
Jaishankar (left) and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.
“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is going to take this issue very forcefully at the United Nations platform”, Nafees Zakaria, Foreign Office spokesman, said in his weekly press briefing.
Inu, presently on a three-day visit to India, further said that Pakistan has not learnt anything from its defeat in 1971.
“He said that his visit should provide the opportunity to receive a briefing from Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary on progress in this regard”, said Swarup.
Asked if India was prepared to move away from its stated policy of non-interference in a neighbouring country’s affairs since it would be seen as meddling in Balochistan, sources pointed to the India-Sri Lanka accord in the past on the rights of Tamil minorities. They had made an offer, we have responded to the offer.
Later Wednesday, an Indian Embassy representative in Islamabad handed over a letter to the Pakistani government reaffirming that New Delhi would be prepared to discuss “current and relevant” concerns but not Kashmir, which is part-ruled by the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
“Without access, we can only fear the worst”, Zeid added.
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“It is unfortunate that our honest attempts to independently assess the facts in relation to reports of human rights violations have failed”, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a news release.
