New Delhi has rejected Pakistan’s proposal to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on Kashmir, and said cross-border terrorism should be the focus of any dialogue between the two countries.
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The Pakistan’s Government direct links with HafizSaeed has been further exposed by Islamabad allowing him to lead an anti-India rally on the Kashmir issue. “But having said that, let me reassure viewers that the Indian forces, the government of India, the entire nation in fact is ready to face any kind of challenge or any kind of situation arising out of Pakistan perpetration of terrorism on the Indian soil”, Singh told ANI.
The CPEC is not a zero-sum game where Pakistan gains and India loses. “Pakistan has no locus standi in addressing any aspect of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which is an internal matter of India, ” he added.
Another official said Pakistan was reviewing India’s response. To a question, he said that Indian involvement in Balochistan had been proved. “In the last two years, great efforts were made to reach out to Pakistan including the foreign minister’s trip there for the Heart of Asia conference”, Jaishankar said.
New Delhi accuses Islamabad of arming and training the militants fighting to end Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir.
The development comes amid strained bilateral ties between the two countries over the Kashmir issue.
Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who carries a United States dollars 10-million bounty on his head, asked Prime Minister Sharif to break his silence and respond to Modi’s strong statements on Kashmir and Balochistan.
He said while all Saarc nations agree on moving forward over various issues for regional development but Pakistan’s support to terrorism has made the country a hard regional partner.
Responding to Aziz’s statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday said India would welcome a dialogue on contemporary and relevant issues in India-Pakistan relations.
He expressed deep regret at the failure of Indian and Pakistani authorities to grant the UN Human Rights Office access to Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir respectively, given grave concerns about recent allegations of serious human rights violations.
A similar request for visit to J&K in the wake of protests was also turned down by India.
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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.
