NSA-level talks will focus only on terror, says govt

The government has decided to go ahead with the National Security Advisor (NSA)-level talks with Pakistan on Sunday. Defending its decision not to call off the India-Pakistan NSA-level talks despite the neighbouring country courting Kashmiri separatist leaders, the government on Thursday said the meeting would only focus on the issue of terror and ways to prevent it.

The announcement came after brief detention and release of separatist leaders in Srinagar earlier in the morning. “This meeting is for talks on terror and the need to prevent it,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Responding to a series of questions at a briefing on the decisions of the Union Cabinet on the house arrest of Hurriyat leaders, Prasad said he would not make a comment on the “policing exercise” of the government of Jammu & Kashmir as the state police “is free to take appropriate action”.

Asked whether India was “okay” with the Pakistan NSA seeking a meeting with Kashmiri separatists, the minister said foreign policy initiatives were not determined through media debates.

“The stand of the government, I have told you very clearly and categorically, is that it is a talk on terror,” he said. “I would just like to remind that the agenda of the meeting was settled at the Ufa meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. The first was the meeting between NSAs to talk on terror, including the exchange of voice samples of 26/11 (Mumbai terror attacks). Therefore, this meeting is for talks on terror and the need to prevent it,” Prasad said.

Meanwhile, government sources said by detaining the separatist leaders in Srinagar on Thursday, India has made it clear that it won’t accept any meeting between Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz and the separatists, who have been invited to a reception hosted by the Pakistan High Commission on Sunday evening. “It’s a signal that the separatists cannot be a third party to talks,” said sources.

Last July, India called off talks after Pakistan consulted Kashmiri separatists before the meeting of Foreign Secretaries. A year later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif met on the sidelines of a conference in Ufa, Russia, and agreed to restart talks as part of several breakthrough announcements.

The meeting between Indian NSA Ajit Doval and Sartaj Aziz on the weekend is meant to focus on terror and comes as Pakistani troops have fired across the border in Jammu and Kashmir, targeting civilians. 

There have also been two major terror attacks by Pakistanis in Punjab and Uddhampur in Jammu region. Mohammad Naveed, who was captured there, has revealed crucial information to interrogators about training camps in Pakistan for terrorists like him.  

Pakistan on Thursday announced that it will not host next month's Commonwealth Parliamentary Union meeting amid a row with India over its refusal to invite the speaker of Jammu & Kashmir assembly for the conference.