Pakistan

Sartaj Aziz will meet Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi: FO

Statement comes after Hurriyat leaders were placed under house arrest ahead of meeting with Sartaj

Web Desk August 20, 2015

PHOTO: REUTERS

Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah confirmed on Thursday that Sartaj Aziz will meet Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi, hours after reports of Hurriyat leaders were being placed under house arrest in India circulated.

“National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz will meet the Hurriyat conference leaders in New Delhi as consultations with them are a routine matter,” Khalilullah said, according to Radio Pakistan.

“Pakistan and India are in the process of finalising agenda for the national security adviser talks in New Delhi on August 23,” he added.

Read: Hurriyat leaders placed under house arrest ahead of Sartaj's visit to New Delhi

The statement comes after Hurriyat leaders were placed under house arrest on Thursday but Indian government official confirmed that the government would not call off next week’s talks with National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz despite his plans to meet Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi, according to Indian media.

According to sources, invitations were sent to key Hurriyat leaders, including chairperson Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for a reception hosted by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Although, in the past New Delhi had allowed Pakistani officials visiting India to meet APHC leaders, the Bharatiya Janata Party government has taken a hardline stance on it. In August last year, New Delhi had cancelled scheduled foreign secretary level talks in protest after Pakistan’s high commissioner held ‘consultations’ with Kashmiri leaders.

Read: No ‘formal agenda’ for NSA talks in Delhi

Earlier, The Express Tribune learnt there will be no ‘formal agenda’ for the upcoming meeting between the national security advisers of Pakistan and India after the two hostile neighbours apparently could not agree on specific issues for discussion.

Terrorism-related issues are supposed to be discussed at the New Delhi meeting that is taking place in line with a decision taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in the Russia city of Ufa last month.

Read: India has more to lose if another war erupts with Pakistan: NYT editorial

However, a senior Pakistani official disclosed that the agenda of the meeting between Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval will be ‘open ended’. The official, who asked not to identified, told The Express Tribune that the agenda has been kept open in order to allow both sides to discuss issues of their concerns.

COMMENTS (21)

Ajay | 9 years ago | Reply @roadkashehzada: And what about Hyderabad, Junagadh and many other Districts of Bihar and UP where Muslims are in majority? You want all this territory to be called Pakistan? Why J&K is different than thee parts of India? India has more Muslims than whole of Pakistan and if they are given a choice none will like to relocate to Pakistan.

silly game | 9 years ago | Reply Its a silly game to play when you try to ignore the larger relationship needed. Pak will not gain anything by fighting. The impact of bloodshed is something we will realize only later, after the fact. By then we can't turn the clock back.

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Rayhan | 9 years ago | Reply @hzr: What nonsense, both countries' rivers run through Kashmir, and the place has strategic importance. Moreover, India is committing human rights abuses in Occupied Kashmir that can only be described as "genocide." It is India, not the Kashmiris, who have held both nations hostage, you should learn to place where credit is due instead of scrambling to absolve the real criminal by blaming the victim.

Ahmed Ali khan | 9 years ago | Reply @Ajay: Kashmir is an unfinished business of partition. India and Pakistan were given land based on the hindu and muslim population. At the partition Kashmir was mostly muslim populated land so it belongs to Pakistan. period. This will be unfinished business even after 100 years. If India tries to changed the population to hindu majority Kashmir still it will be unfinised business of partition and will apply what was the basis at the time of partition.

Ajay | 9 years ago | Reply @roadkashehzada: My dear friend please do not reduce your glorious religion as a tool to make political gains and expand territory. In the process you are only creating fanaticism and hatred. The purpose of religion is to achieve spirituality and win hearts. Indian culture and sages have continued to preach all religions as different paths leading to same divine goal. We have grown up reading this message in our schools and from our elders. And look at the speech your internal Minister gave yesterday asking all Muslims to gang up against non Muslims!!! It is shameful to say the least. India has more Muslims living here than the total population of Pakistan and given a choice hardly anyone will like to relocate to Pakistan. The sessation of Bangladesh and the severe internal problems in Pakistan among different groups of Muslims are vivid example that religion alone can not be a force to bind people togethar.

javaid | 9 years ago | Reply All indians want talks without kashmir while pakistani think opposite. No peace possible without its solution. Indian extremists and its PM trying to solve on terms not accepted to Pakistanis. It seems Indian leadership has no capability of choosing unpopular decisions so poverty will prevail in subcontinent for ever.

Imran Bhatt | 9 years ago | Reply Pakistan is perhaps only country whoes foreign policy revolves either bringing Taliban to table or meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders in Dehli.Perhaps no one important is going to meet Mr Aziz during his forthcoming visit to Dehli.

Kushal | 9 years ago | Reply @Anon: O my knowledgeable historian. Don't know what you have been taught in your village Madrasa, but it is a fact that Pakistan cannot get Kashmir just because some misguided Sunnis want it that way.

hzr | 9 years ago | Reply @Shahid: The small number of Kashmirs and are holding two big nations hostage and eating up their development,resources,manpower,,growth and the future of millions of non Kashmirs.Both nation should put Kashmir on the back burner for some decades and go ahead and discuss subjects which will help their growth and welfare

Sita | 9 years ago | Reply I wish we could have a more competent person than Sartaj Aziz for the meeting who is in tune with current times.

Sita | 9 years ago | Reply @Ajay: misguided Ajay, Islam also provides complete protection and freedom to them. It's the narrow interpretation of it that's a problem. Condemn the people, not the religion.But you won't understand it because then how are you going to vent your personal frustrations?

Anon | 9 years ago | Reply @Ajay: Another Indian with a dillusion about the past, present and the future and no sense of history. The Muslims in Kashmir wanted to be part of Pakistan and revolted against the ruler. The majority of the Kashmiris are claiming Kashmir and they do not want to part of Hindu India

roadkashehzada | 9 years ago | Reply @Ajay: u spoke truth. " Pakistani is claiming the territory only because it has Muslim majority population". that was the whole point of partition. separate country for muslim majority states.

Khurram | 9 years ago | Reply Inviting Hurriyat Leaders is nothing less than a direct provocation by our own policy makers. It also proves that we are not sincere in solving the Kashmir problem.

Brother Indo | 9 years ago | Reply @Aam Admi Bechara: A statement coming from the Premier himself should have concrete evidence, that too against a foreign country. Hon'ble Nawaj Sharif understands the protocol hence keeping mum on such issues. Also perhaps he knows that raising such allegations now may jeopardy the forthcoming talks. There are multiple power centers in Pakistan and a powerful lobby which does not want a stabilization of relationship. Steps like Raising Kashmir issue now in UN, Border Firing, sending ultras and meeting separatists of Kashmir just before the talk signals leaders of Pakistan does not want stable relation and peace. Perhaps the talks are happening under pressure from outside. Just think opposite when Indian delegation visits Pak and decides to meet separatist leaders of Baluch and other such people in Pakistan how you will react to such things? Time has come to put the difficult issues behind and resolve issues which are easier to resolve, increase trust level between leadership, sign agreements where both countries can support each other, sign agreements where both can work together on international forums, discuss how we can reduce our military expenses and divert that resource for national development etc. Talks will never be successful with a negative mindset and mistrust.

Pankaj | 9 years ago | Reply In Ufa it was decided by both PMs that talks agenda will be security and terrorism but after meeting between Pak PM, army chief and ISI chief whole agenda is changed. Pakistan's governing system is very strange, any senior army officer can overrule democratically elected prime minister's decision.

Usman | 9 years ago | Reply @Aam Admi Bechara: Absolutely, if I hear a word of grovelling, begging of appeasing his Indian counterparts from his mouth, I will be very disappointed, although, not surprised. Him and NS have no experience of foreign policy.

Ajay | 9 years ago | Reply J&K was a boutique of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists living in perfect harmony with Sufism based culture they loved to call "Kashmiriyat" until Pakistan enters and vitiates the atmosphere with religious apartheid. Although State of J&K officially annexed itself to Indian Union, Pakistani is claiming the territory only because it has Muslim majority population. Today's world needs multi ethnic group of people coexisting peacefully under secular and democratic ideals and not Islamic world of medieval times.

Shahid | 9 years ago | Reply Time to cooperate on other issues and try and resolve the Kashmir issue through UN. Lets not stop engagement on other economic issues. I hope better sense prevails.

Kushal | 9 years ago | Reply ........but after the talks.

Aam Admi Bechara | 9 years ago | Reply What's the use when nawaz sharif never utters a single word on Kashmir neither on india's terrorism in Pakistan

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