Pakistan on Friday said it is willing to come to India for talks between the National Security Advisors, but would do so only if there are no “pre-conditions”, and also said it cannot accept the Indian “advice” not to meet the Hurriyat.
The statement from Pakistan sets the stage for a full blown confrontation over the talks between NSA Sartaj Aziz and Ajit Doval on August 23, with Indian officials indicating they would physically > prevent the meeting between Mr. Aziz and the Hurriyat by detaining the Separatist leadership in Srinagar or Delhi if necessary.
Pakistan’s statement comes in response to > India’s strong message that it is not appropriate for the Pakistan NSA to meet the Hurriyat leaders. Conveying Pakistan’s refusal to climb down from its position of meeting the Hurriyat leaders, a spokesperson for the Foreign Office of Pakistan said: “India’s insistence to introduce conditionalities and restrict the agenda for the dialogue, demonstrates a lack of seriousness on India’s part to meaningfully engage with Pakistan.”
The spokesperson said the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan has conveyed to the Indian High Commissioner that it would not be possible for Pakistan to accept India’s advice of not meeting the separatists as it considers the Hurriyat to be the “true representatives of the Kashmiri people” and regards them as “genuine stakeholders in the efforts to find a lasting solution of the Kashmir Dispute”.
Even as India has underlined that the NSA talks should be held within the ambit of the Ufa understanding to jointly work to combat terrorism, Pakistan retorted by saying that, “Kashmir is a disputed territory as per the UN Security Council resolutions which remain unimplemented.”
Islamabad also reiterated that the Pakistani leadership has always interacted with the Kashmir/Hurriyat leadership, during their visits to India and that “Pakistan sees no reason to depart from this established past practice.”
Pakistan has proposed and conveyed to India a comprehensive agenda reflecting the broad understanding reached between the leaders in Ufa, that all outstanding issues, including Kashmir and other disputes, as well as, terrorism issues and other CBMs will be discussed between the two countries.
Intent on not allowing Pakistani officials to meet the Hurriyat leaders, when Mr. Aziz arrives for talks, India on Friday put separatist leader Shabir Shah under house arrest; Syed Shah Geelani is already under house arrest.
Sources in the Pakistan High Commission here also conveyed that preparations for the reception where Mr. Aziz is scheduled to meet the Separatists are underway and invitations have already been sent out.
