Indian ‘interference’ to figure in NSA talks

Ahead of the scheduled National Security level talks, Pakistan High Commission has extended its invitation to Hurriyat leaders for talks with its National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz, media reported.

The decision was taken after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, and the chief of the intelligence agency ISI, Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Aziz, PM’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and other officials were present in the meeting.

The senior advisers will shakes hands in New Delhi following last month’s agreement in Russian city Ufa between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to resume dialogue and discuss all issues including core issue of Jammu Kashmir.

India’s sole agenda is to give Pakistan enough evidence for its terror activities.

“Mr Aziz will vigorously take up the India’s whipping up terrorism across Pakistan with his counterpart”, a senior government functionary told The Nation on Tuesday.

He said, “Some miscreants and those creating conspiracies are out to destabilise the state government which has formed after 70 per cent of the people of the state voted in its favour”. The NSA-level talks which are to be held on August 23 are of extreme importance.

Dawn News quoted sources as saying that Pakistan will stress on laying out a counter-terrorism mechanism between the two countries during the talks.

The announcement of NSA talks seemed to be a step in the right direction, as relations between the two countries have been tense, with India pointing a finger at Pakistan for recent terror attacks in Gurdaspur, Punjab and in Jammu and Kashmir.

India has previously in 2014 called for scheduled talks between foreign secretaries in Islamabad over Pakistan High Commissioner’s meeting with Hurriyat leaders in Delhi giving red lines as an excuse.

Foreign Office (FO) said in a brief statement that Raghavan called on Aziz.