NEW DELHI: A defiant Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit continued to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders on Tuesday amidst strong indications from India that Pakistan’s conduct had torpedoed any hopes for an early resumption of the peace dialogue.
A day after India scrapped the foreign secretaries’ meet slated for August 25, the Pakistan envoy on Tuesday met Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of the moderate faction Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF leader Yasin Malik at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Mr Basit’s meeting with with another Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah on Monday, despite New Delhi asking him to desist from doing so, had provoked the Modi government to call off the August 25 talks.
Though the Pakistan envoy’s decision to go ahead with Tuesday’s meetings remained an irritant for New Delhi, sources here noted that in real terms it mattered little as the secretary level talks had already been called off.
