Pakistan refuses India’s advice on meeting with Hurriyat leaders
The proposed India-Pak NSA-level dialogue which is to be held in a couple of days time was on the verge of a breakdown Friday as Islamabad rejected an advisory from India asking Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz not to go ahead with his proposed meeting with Hurriyat leaders.
”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,” said Islamabad in a statement.This was conveyed to Indian High Commissioner T C A Raghavan here by Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, who also made it clear that any pre-conditions for the talks between Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval were not acceptable to Pakistan.
India though said it remained committed to NSA dialogue and that it was not going to call off the talks proposed for Monday. Despite taking clearly inalienable position over the issue, no side seems willing to unilaterally cancel the dialogue. With Hurriyat leaders effectively under detention, India believes it is Pakistan which has to decide whether or not Aziz should take the flight to India.
Meanwhile sources have said, if Kashmiri separatists travel to the capital to meet Pakistan’s Sartaj Aziz, scheduled to visit for talks with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, they could be detained on arrival at the Delhi airport, government sources have said. If that happens, they would be released only after talks between the NSAs of India and Pakistan have taken place, the sources said.
