Sushma Spooks Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan Kills Talks

The curtains came down by Saturday night on the dramatic spectacle around holding India-Pakistan talks, less than a day before Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz was due to land in New Delhi, with bitter accusations and acrimony marking the exchanges.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Sartaj Aziz said that Indian external affairs ministry has imposed new conditions, ignoring the last sentence of the note handed over to the Indian High Commission on 21 August that “Pakistan is ready to hold NSA talks without any preconditions”.

He said it was India which introduced a new condition through its “advice” that Pakistan should not meet the Kashmiri leaders, ” thus assuming the right to determine the guest list for the High Commissioner’s reception”.

The minister said that in the spirit of the Simla Agreement, there can be no third party, and in the spirit of the Ufa statement, the NSA-level talks would be limited to terrorism.

“I am very disappointed that India has virtually canceled the first ever official talks between the National Security Advisers scheduled for August 24″, Aziz told a news conference in Islamabad.

The Pakistan foreign office noted that Swaraj had said there was a need to discuss all outstanding issues through a sustained dialogue process which began in 1998, as the Composite Dialogue had became the Resumed Dialogue in 2011.

Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma, however, alleged there has been a negligence somewhere on part of the Narendra Modi government on the issue of talks with Pakistan, which is now trying to show that India was keen for talks.

Swaraj said she expected a reply soon from Pakistan.

Of late India has started projecting Pakistan’s proximity to the region’s separatists as a major hindrance in resolving issues with Pakistan, though the practice has been going on for quite a long time.

Saudi Arabia refused India’s offer to provide defense support to the Arab country in return for isolating Pakistan, reported Express News.

The issue of Indo-Pak NSA level talks was trending on social networking sites with former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah drawing parallel with a tennis match having entered into a “tie- breaker” which will be completed “under lights”.

As the talks face a bleak future, the separatist leaders have announced they would travel to New Delhi to meet Aziz.

Aziz maintained that the core issue of Kashmir would be on the agenda of talks.

Aziz said they have prepared three dossiers on alleged activities of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) on Pakistani soil.

Take a look: Willing to visit New Delhi without preconditions, says Aziz.