Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: India called off the Foreign Secretary level talks scheduled between the two countries on August 25 in Islamabad on Monday after Pak High Commissioner Abdul Basit's decision to meet separatist leaders from Kashmir at Delhi.
The moderate Hurriyat faction had on Sunday said that Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had been invited by the Pakistan High Commission for consultations in Delhi on August 19, following which India called off the Foreign Secretary level talks, PTI reported.
It is reported that the Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh informed Pakistan High Commissioner that her talks with Pakistan counterpart on August 25 in Islamabad now stand cancelled.
Talking to scribes over the matter, Syed Akbaruddin, Official Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, said, “At a time when serious initiative was taken to take bilateral ties forward, invite to Hurriyat leaders raises questions about Pak’s sincerity.”
“Pak High Commissioner's meeting with so called Hurriyat leaders undermined the constructive diplomatic arrangements made by PM Modi,” the MEA spokesperson added.
Pakistan has repeatedly violated ceasefire and on Sunday night resorted to heavy mortar shelling and automatic weapons firing at 20 Border Out Posts and civilian areas along the International Border in Jammu sector.
Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was to meet her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in order to raise concerns about these repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan's armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, who floated the third faction of the amalgam last year, had been invited by the Pakistan High Commissioner.
Pakistan envoys have in the past too talked to separatists from Kashmir before any major diplomatic initiative with India.
However, Islamabad broke off from this tradition when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited India to attend the swearing in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May this year
With Agency Inputs
First Published: Monday, August 18, 2014, 18:10
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