India willing for dialogue with Pakistan, but with conditions

Author: By Tarique Siyal

ISLAMABAD: India has accepted Pakistan’s dialogue offer on the condition that cross-border terrorism and infiltration will also be discussed during the bilateral talks.

According to the sources, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale on Wednesday called on Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry and handed him over the reply from Indian External Affairs Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Foreign Office sources told Daily Times that Jaishankar mentioned in his reply that India was ready for secretary-level talks with Pakistan on the condition that cross-border terrorism and infiltration would be on the agenda. On the other hand, Pakistan wants the dialogue to focus exclusively on Kashmir.

Sources said that Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry would take the Indian reply to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Indian high commissioner would make consultations with New Delhi before finalising modalities of the dialogue.

According to the media reports, India is willing to send Jaishankar to Islamabad for talks focusing on cross-border terrorism. Indian media said that India rejected the allegations of rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

On August 15, Chaudhry called on the Indian high commissioner and gave him an invitation letter formally inviting his Indian counterpart to secretary-level talks on the Indian-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan invited India to talks hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his speech on India’s Independence Day that Pakistan was committing rights violations in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.

Pakistan this time dedicated its Independence Day on August 14 to the freedom of Kashmir. Last week, Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said during a briefing to the media that Pakistan wanted to invite India to secretary-level talks on Kashmir.

Responding to Aziz’s remarks, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said that Pakistan must address “incitement to violence and terrorism across the border and parading of internationally recognised terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin and sincerely follow-up on Mumbai attack trial and Pathankot attack investigation” before dialogue with India.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh traded barbs at the SAARC Summit in Islamabad this month over rights violations in Kashmir.