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Pak openly practises terrorism, no scope for dialogue: Jaishankar

London/Islamabad: Pakistan openly practises terrorism, and there is no scope for negotiations until Islamabad reins in its financing and recruitment of militant groups, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

Jaishankar was responding to the recent opinion piece written by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Kashmir in the New York Times where he argued that it was urgent to begin discussions while a "nuclear shadow" hovers over South Asia.

In an interview with POLITICO in Brussels, Jaishankar said the idea was a nonstarter while Pakistan "openly practises terrorism".

Noting that he hasn't had time to read Khan's Friday op-ed, the External Affairs Minister, who was in Brussels last week, said there was no hope of negotiations until Pakistan reins in its financing and recruitment of militant groups.

"Terrorism is not something that is being conducted in dark corners of Pakistan. It's done in broad daylight," he was quoted as saying in the report.

India has not been engaging with Pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.

Responding to the situation in Kashmir after India ended its unique status, the minister said the security restrictions across the Valley would be eased in the "coming days".

India on Monday said that Kulbhushan Jadhav appeared to be under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan's claims after a top diplomat met him for the first time since the neighbouring country arrested him in 2016.

"We will decide further course of action after receiving a detailed report and after determining the extent of conformity to International Court of Justice (ICJ) directives," said a statement by the ministry of external affairs.

It said that the government remains committed to ensuring that Jadhav receives justice at the earliest and returns safely to India.

Earlier, India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad Gaurav Ahluwalia met the retired Indian Navy officer at the sub-jail in Islamabad, amid tensions between the two countries over Kashmir.

The meeting took place after Pakistan granted consular access to the Indian death-row convict "in line with the ICJ judgement".

Their meeting lasted for an hour, Geo TV reported, quoting sources.


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