India, Pakistan blame each other for cancellation of talks

In a statement, the State Department said, “We are disappointed the talks will not happen this weekend and encourage India and Pakistan to resume formal dialogue soon”.

Following last-minute scuttling of talks between the national security advisers of Pakistan and India, proposed meetings between senior military officials of the two countries are now unlikely senior Pakistani officials said.

Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz has accused India of acting like a regional superpower, saying it was imposing its agenda in violation of Ufa agreement that scuttled the NSA-level talks.

Both countries have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947, when the Asian subcontinent was divided into Islamic Pakistan and secular and Hindu-majority India.

Aziz said he would carry the dossiers and hoped he gets a chance to hand over them to his Indian counterpart Doval, whom he is scheduled to meet on August 24.

“It has been pointed out repeatedly that it has been a long-standing practice that whenever Pakistani leaders visited India during the past 20 years, they have been meeting (separatist) leaders“, Pakistan’s statement said.

To another question he said Indian media has tendency to propagate the issues without strong evidences.

“The prime ministers themselves mostly have encouraging words about the bilateral relationship, but they allow their underlings to damage goodwill and trust”.

New Delhi is likely to convey to Washington that while it is still committed to the Ufa understanding, any future engagement would be possible only if Pakistan agreed to adhere to the “red lines” drawn by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

“The Pakistanis torpedoed the talks by issuing an ill-fated invite to the Hurriyat leadership”.

The disagreement weighed heavily on both sides as each positioned itself to blame the other for the failure to hold the talks. “Pakistan cannot expand the subject of talks beyond terrorism“, Swaraj told reporters in New Delhi earlier in the day. India also said only terror should be on the agenda while Pakistan demanded that other issues be discussed as well.

Mufti said peace and stability in J&K is important for stability and development in the two countries.

“We are very sad that all the gains of the last 10-odd years on Indo-Pak settlement of at least some issues are given a setback by such aborted talks”.