Responding to media query External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had conveyed to Pakistan that he accepts Pakistan’s invitation to visit Islamabad but made it clear that the discussion should focus on more pressing aspect of situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
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People belonging to every school of thought of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Monday observed black day and held protest meetings against Indian Prime Minister Narender Modi’s statement regarding Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Pakistani reaction was in response to a tit for tat diplomatic move by Prime Minister Modi who dramatically altered his policy towards Pakistan by talking of atrocities committed by it in Balochistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
India has set a five point agenda for foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan. In his letter, he called for India and Pakistan to solve the problem of Kashmir jointly and offered cooperation in that regard.
“The Foreign Secretary definitely mentions that when if he goes to Pakistan, and there was a big IF? What Pakistan is doing now in the name of vendetta is going to further add to the criticism on the issue of human rights violation in Pakistan”, he added. “If I make a very strong statement from Islamabad, I think you understand that it will be counterproductive”, he argued.
The Foreign Secretary said he looked forward to discussing with his Pakistani counterpart the “earliest possible vacation of Pakistan’s illegal occupation of the Indian state of J&K”.
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Meanwhile, responding to the offer of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to send a fact-finding mission to both Indian Kashmir and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the FO in a statement said that the situation in the region had deteriorated further since Pakistan had written to the world body. BJP leader Sudesh Verma said this is yet another proof of human rights violation in Balochistan.
