Pakistan blames India for ignoring Kashmir issue, but says it is ready for NSA talks

"India wants us to forget Kashmir issue since PM Modi came into power...It refuses to recognise Kashmir issue as the most important issue...Pakistan wants to discuss the modalities of Kashmir issue," Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz told a press conference in Islamabad, a day before the NSA-level talks, the fate of which hangs precariously in balance over Pakistan's invitation to Kashmiri separatist leaders for talks.

India has strongly objected to the Pak move saying separatists are an unacceptable "third party" and Kashmir was not part of the agenda Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif agreed upon in Russia's Ufa last month.

However,  Aziz on Saturday said that "K-word was very much there on the Ufa statement.

Aziz also blamed India for the ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC), and claimed that Pak  soldiers open fire only in self defence.

His words reaffirmed Islamabad's already declared stand that Pakistan will not  surrender on those fronts. 

However, Aziz, said on Saturday,  "Pakistan is ready to hold talks without any pre-condition", indicating a last-minute flexibility on Islamabad's part.

Aziz is scheduled for a meeting with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Sunday and Monday.

But India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh said: "We are ready to talk only on terror," pointing at the Ufa agreement that envisaged the

Meanwhile, in New Delhi, Doval met PM Narendra Modi and briefed him about the situation.

As Aziz addresses media in Pakistan, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj  has called a press conference in the national capital at 4 pm on Saturday.

Tension in the relation between the two countries refused to die down with both sides hardening their respective stands amid exchange of tough words.

Meanwhile, Kashmiri separatist leader  Shabir Shah left for Delhi from Srinagar on Saturday morning for talks with Sartaz Aziz ahead of Sunday's bilateral dialogues between Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.

Reports said Shabbir Shah and his supporters are likely to be detained at Delhi airport as the India government has been deadly opposed to the separatists being  invited by Pakistan.

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.

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.