Talks between India and Pakistan, scheduled for Sunday, are precariously placed, with both sides virtually daring each other to call off the dialogue of their National Security Advisors (NSAs).
Pakistan has flatly refused to cancel a meeting with Kashmiri separatists in Delhi and has insisted that Kashmir will be a part of its agenda for the talks tomorrow even though India says these are unacceptable.
“We will meet Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz ji tomorrow at Pakistan House in the evening,” said Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah before leaving for Delhi this morning.
India contends that Pakistan’s two last-minute conditions – insistence on meeting Kashmiri separatists and including Kashmir in tomorrow’s talks – were not sought last month when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif agreed, in Ufa, to resume talks.
The announcement that the NSAs – Sartaj Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval – would conference in Delhi on terrorism was a breakthrough after a year-long stand-off, which began when Pakistan was adamant on a similar invite to Kashmiri separatists ahead of talks of Foreign Secretaries. The NSA talks are meant to be followed by meetings between other officials.
In a statement yesterday, Pakistan said, “This is the second time that India has chosen to go back on a decision mutually agreed upon between the two Prime Ministers, to engage in a comprehensive dialogue, by coming up with frivolous pretexts.”
India retaliated, referring to the separatists as an unacceptable “third party”, and that “unilateral imposition of new conditions and distortion of the agreed agenda cannot be the basis for going forward.”
Three Hurriyat leaders including hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani were placed under brief house arrest on Thursday, in what government sources rejected as a confused and hastily-withdrawn measure. They say it was a signal to Pakistan that unlike earlier governments, which have grudgingly tolerated conferrals of the Hurriyat and visiting Pakistani officials, the Modi government has drawn a clear line in the sand.
Since the thaw at Ufa, Pakistan has increased violations of the ceasefire along the border in Jammu and Kashmir; a Pakistani terrorist who attacked a military convoy and was captured has provided details of his training across the border.