India has accepted Pakistan’s dialogue offer on the condition that cross-border terrorism and infiltration will also be discussed during the bilateral talks.
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He said that he is not asking for a war with India but they (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Raheel) must form a strategy with regard to Kashmir issue. “If we have to bring trust in the region, whether its Indian occupied Kashmir or Pakistan occupied Kashmir, we have to do that through talks”, Singh told reporters.
New Delhi has rejected Pakistan’s invitation to hold talks on the future of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s northernmost state, and Modi said he had received messages of support from leaders in restive parts of Pakistan. MEA says it is yet to decide on India’s level of participation.
Pakistan on Monday had invited India for talks on Kashmir, saying it is the worldwide obligation of both the countries to resolve the issue.
Interestingly, similar to the Indian government’s move, Pakistan government has also turned down a request by the UN Human Rights Commission to visit PoK.
Amid rising tension between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that Islamabad has an “attitude towards use of terrorism as an instrumental policy of diplomacy” which makes the Indo-Pak relationship hard to grow.
China will not stop building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) despite India’s protests but will also not side with either country over the Kashmir dispute, a state-run daily said on Tuesday.
According to the sources, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale on Wednesday called on Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry and handed him over the reply from Indian External Affairs Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Showing the willingness to send a fact-finding United Nations team to Kashmir the High Commissioner said “We requested full and unhindered access to the affected population, to interview a variety of individuals on the ground, including victims, witnesses, security forces, and with access to relevant documentation”.
More than 60 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan region since 2010.
Rather he commented, “Problem with Pakistan is centrality of issue of terrorism”.
The communist government’s mouth-piece in China, Global Times, carried an opinion piece that said India had no option but to “adopt an open attitude” towards a $46bn (£35.5bn) project – the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – that is being built through PoK, which New Delhi objects.
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Kashmir has been witnessing protest for last 40 days after death of Hizbul Mujahidin commander Burhan Wani on July 8.
