New Delhi has made it clear that if Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visits Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterpart A A Chaudhry, the discussion should focus on the progress made in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks.
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Deliberations should also focus on denying safe haven, shelters and support to terrorists in Pakistan who have escaped Indian law, Jaishankar said in his letter.
‘We have also conveyed that the 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’.
“Balochistan is part of Pakistan and is run by a democratically elected government”, he said.
“It (Modi’s reference) is an expression of concern over what is happening there”, they said.
A day after India put a pre-condition on going ahead with the Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan, Swarup said the “ball is in Pakistan’s court, we are ready for cross-border talks”.
“The statement on Balochistan did not come out as blue”.
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. “We feel for people inside the country as well as outside the country. humanity does not stop at the borders”, sources said.
However, what prompted the comments from the Indian Prime Minister at the all-party meeting of August 12, as well as on Independence Day, was that he had received “various messages” from Balochistan that had “sufficiently moved him to share it with the people of India”.
Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri on Thursday declared Brahamdagh Bugti, a traitor to the nation for thanking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making references to Pakistan’s mistreatment of Balochistan and the atrocities meted out to the people in the region.
“While welcoming any UN team that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights may wish to send” to PoK, “we can not accept equating the rampant human rights violations” in Kashmir with the situation in PoK, Pakistan Foreign Office said. “He (Modi) crossed the red line by talking about Balochistan”, Zakaria added.
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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had appealed to both India and Pakistan to grant his team access to Kashmir.
