Pakistan wants to resolve all issues with India through talks: Sartaj Aziz

Islamabad: In order to restore peace in the region, Pakistan wants to hold dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, Sartaj Aziz, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs said.

Aziz's remarks came amid escalating tension between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC).

He also accused India of increasing the tension on the LoC to divert attention from the human rights violations in Kashmir, The News International newspaper reported.

He claimed that in the last one year, India had committed 450 LoC violations, killing many innocent people.

Aziz said that Pakistan wanted to hold dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir so that the peace could be restored in the region.

At the same time, Aziz said Pakistan would continue political, moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiris, until they achieve freedom from India. He said India could not suppress the vigour of Kashmiris for freedom.

India being a democratic country should give chance to the people of Kashmir to decide their future course, he said.

If referendum could be held in Italy and Britain, then why not in Kashmir, he asked. Aziz claimed that if plebiscite was held in Kashmir no Muslim would decide to live with India.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj lashed out at her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz for "not showing the courtesy to acknowledge" her letter about a visa for Kulbhushan Jadhav’s mother. Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged espionage.

Meanwhile, Swaraj also denied that a medical visa was rejected to a Pakistani cancer patient on the basis of “deteriorating ties” between the two countries.