Pakistan calls off talks with India, can't just talk terror and not Kashmir
Islamabad: Ending the suspense, Pakistan tonight called off the Indo-Pak NSA-level talks, hours after India made it clear that discussions on Kashmir and a meeting with separatists will not be acceptable.
"The main purpose of any dialogue between India and Pakistan is to reduce tensions and restore trust as a first step towards normalization. If the only purpose of NSA level talks is to discuss terrorism, then instead of improving prospects for peace it will only intensify the blame game and further vitiate the atmosphere," Sartaj Aziz said in a statement.
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"We have come to the conclusion that proposed NSA level talks between the two countries would not serve any purpose if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down by the (External Affairs) Minister," he added.
“Considering that many terror ‘incidents’ blamed initially by India on Pakistan eventually turned out to be fake, it is not improbable that India can delay the Resumed Dialogue indefinitely by concocting one or two incidents and keeping the LoC hot,” he said.
Read: Pakistan dares India to cancel NSA talks, ‘disturbed Hurriyat leaders arrested’
That the talks was a non-starter was evident in the last two days in view of the acrimonious exchanges between the two sides but the last straw appeared to be External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's virtual ultimatum to Pakistan to give a clear commitment by midnight that it would not go ahead with meeting the separatists.
She said there would be no talks at all if Pakistan did not wish to stick to the agenda of terror. “Talks cannot happen if they are to be drowned by the sound of guns. We want to create an atmosphere fit for talks,” she had said.
Read: India insists NSA-level talks will only be on terrorism
Aziz's talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on terror-related issues was scheduled to have taken place in Delhi on Monday.
What became a red rag for New Delhi was the invitation by the Pakistan High Commission to Hurriyat leaders to meet Aziz ahead of the first-ever NSA-level talks, which was agreed upon in Ufa in Russia in July during the meeting between the two Prime Ministers, Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif.
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India was also upset over Pakistan including Kashmir as part of the agenda for the NSA talks that was mainly scheduled to discuss terror.
