Rajnath calls Pakistan's decision to cancel NSA talks 'unfortunate'

 

"We will continue to try for cordial relations with Pakistan... it up to them to decide," Singh told mediapersons.

Ending all speculations, Pakistan on Saturday called off the National Security Agency (NSA) level talks with India.

Pakistan said  talks cannot be held on the basis of the 'preconditions set by India'.  

In a statement, issued on Saturday, Pakistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said: "Pakistan, therefore, reiterates that the scheduled NSA level talks cannot be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India. "

Hours after Islamabad earlier in the day cleared that it was ready to take  part in the NSA-level talks without any pre-conditions, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj welcomed Pakistani National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz to New Delhi with a rider that "Hurriyat or any third party" will be involved.

"If they are willing to come, we welcome them but we want assurance from Pakistan that talks will only be on terror and the NSA will not meet the Hurriyat," Swaraj told a press conference.

Two-and-a-half hours before, Aziz met the media in Islamabad and accused India of failing to recognise Kashmir as the most outstanding issue, while insisting that "K-word" was very much there on the Ufa statement issued following a meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries last month.

But refuting Pakistan's claim, Swaraj said in Ufa,  there was no discussion on the composite or 'Resumed Dialogues' which can take up multiple related issues for discussions.

"Quoting Mr Aziz, all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kahmir, was a part of the 'Composite Dialogue', now a part of the 'Resumed Dialogue'. This was not taken up during the Ufa meeting," she said.

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

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,.

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.