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India advises Pakistan against meeting with Kashmiri separatists

by IBNS 21 Aug 2015, 07:08 am

New Delhi, Aug 21 (IBNS) Ahead of Sunday's NSA-level talks that is preceded by a growing tension India and Pakistan have exchanged hard talks in keeping with their firm stand over Kashmiri separatists being invited for a meeting with Pakistan's Sartaz Aziz, reports said.

India said it has advised Pakistan that it would not be appropriate for Sartaj Aziz to meet with the Kashmiri separatists.

 "Such a meeting would not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Ufa understanding to jointly work to combat terrorism," a foreign ministry spokesman has been quoted as saying.

On Thursday morning, three Kashmiri separatists were placed under house arrest in Srinagar but were released within two hours. 

The government wanted to send a message that  "the separatists cannot be a third party to talks," and they can be detained if they try to meet the Pakistani delegation.

The separatists, Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, have been invited to a reception in Delhi for Pakistan National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, who will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.

Pakistan's stand is that talking to separatists has always been its policy and that it is not going to budge under Indian pressure. "We are firm on the invite to the Hurriyat  to our reception. So called Indian red lines will not dictate Pakistan's agenda," NDTV has quoted its sources in the  Pakistan government as saying.

"We will not be browbeaten on Kashmir. The so-called Indian red lines will not dictate Pakistan agenda," Pakistan government sources told NDTV.

India called off talks last July after Pakistan consulted Kashmiri separatists before a meeting of Foreign Secretaries. 

However, the thaw was broken a year later when  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif met on the sidelines of a conference in Ufa, Russia, and agreed to restart dialogues.