Beyond the preconditions issue, talks were also canceled after New Delhi refused to tolerate any scope for Pakistani leaders meeting with Hurriyat Kashmiri separatist leaders in India.
Advertisement
Omar’s suggestion came in the wake of uncertainty over NSA-level talks between India and Pakistan following latter’s insistence on meeting Hurriyat leaders during Aziz’s visit to Delhi tomorrow for talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.
Swaraj was reacting to Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz’s remarks that he was prepared to return to India for talks with none pre-circumstances.
In August previous year, India called off meetings between the countries’ foreign secretaries because Pakistan wanted to meet Kashmiri leaders as has been customary.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region since both gained independence in 1947, and it remains a major source of tension.
In the meantime, the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman wrote on Twitter that Pakistan’s decision is “unfortunate” and that India didn’t have any “preconditions.”
“India should realise after the current episode that their tactics are not working”, Mr Aziz said.
After going through several now-on, now-off moments, the NSA talks between India and Pakistan were finally called off on Saturday, with both sides sticking to their positions.
Regarding the statement of Sushma Swaraj, Pakistan Information Minister Parvaiz Rashid said that Pakistan desires to discuss topics during the NSA level talks which it deems important. Swaraj said there had been 91 ceasefire violations since the meeting between Modi and Sharif in Ufa in Russian Federation.
He further said Pakistan will continue to implement those points which were agreed upon in Ufa (Russia) between the two Prime Ministers -Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi- such as release of fishermen and mechanism for facilitating religious tourism. Protests also broke out in Kashmir outside the house of separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was among those scheduled to meet Mr Aziz.
The collapse of planned peace talks between India and Pakistan hours before they were to start on Sunday has raised questions about the arch-rivals’ willingness to overcome mutual mistrust, built since their separation nearly seven decades ago.
Advertisement
“The military has no interest whatsoever in the talks”, said Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science at Indiana University in Bloomington, referring to Pakistan.
