As the tussle continues in the run up to the National Security Advisor (NSA) talks, Pakistan has accused India of demonstrating "lack of seriousness". In a statement released on Friday, the neighbouring country claimed that "India's insistence to introduce conditions and restrict the agenda for the dialogue demonstrates a lack of seriousness on India’s part to meaningfully engage with Pakistan".
This came even as India stood firm on its stance of keeping terrorism as the central agenda of the talks. They said that Hurriyat and Kashmir are not part of the Ufa agreement and at no stage would India discuss the Kashmir issue.
However, in a defiant mode, Pakistan sources said that there was no change to the invitation to the Hurriyat, and that Kashmir would remain on the agenda of the talks.
Amid the tussle between the two countries, India placed Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Shah under house arrest again. The arrests came after India warned the neighbouring country against meeting separatists, saying no third party can be involved.
India has raised strong objection to Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz's invite to separatist leaders for talks ahead of NSA meet.
According to sources, Pakistan is unhappy with India's stance on not allowing Aziz to meet separatists. They further said that the Pakistan Army is not in favour of the talks as there is a sense that Nawaz Sharif made a mistake by agreeing to it only to discuss terror.
Sharif chaired a high-level meeting in Pakistan, attended by country's Army chief Raheel Sharif, Aziz and ISI chief.
In New Delhi, NSA Ajit Doval met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Earlier, sources had said that all options were open to the Indian government if Pakistan did not heed its advice of not meeting with Hurriyat leaders.
Tweeting over the issue, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swaroop on Friday said, "India has advised Pakistan yesterday that it would not be appropriate for Mr Sartaz Aziz to meet with Hurriyat representatives in India. Such a meeting would not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Ufa understanding to jointly work to combat terrorism."
He also added that India has sought a confirmation from Pakistan over the proposed agenda for the NSA level talks that it has conveyed to Pakistani on August 2015.
Pakistan Foreign office had said in Islamabad that consultations with Hurriyat leaders were a "routine matter" and a "long standing practice". The Pakistani invitation, which is seen as yet another "provocation" by Indian side, comes after persistent ceasefire violations as well as two terror attacks in recent weeks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur which many observers see as Pakistan army's opposition to any discussions with India.
India had in 2014 unilaterally called off Foreign Secretary-level talks after the Pakistan High Commissioner in India had held "consultations" with the Kashmiri separatist leaders on the eve of the FS-level meeting in Islamabad.
Significantly, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had last week said his country will not "abandon" the Kashmiris' "legitimate struggle for freedom", stressing that to have normal and cooperative relationship with India it was necessary to settle the decades-old dispute.
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