India says no peace talks with Pakistan if Hurriyat leaders involved

Indian foreign minister says Pakistan has time till tonight to give an assurance talks will only be on terror

NEW DELHI: India will cancel planned peace talks with Pakistan if their top security adviser insists on meeting Hurriyat leaders from the Kashmir region, India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters on Saturday.

“We welcome Sartaj Aziz to come to India and request him to not involve Hurriyat or any third party and only talk on terrorism,” said Swaraj in a press conference in New Delhi, according to NDTV.

The meeting that was agreed on in Ufa did not have Kashmir on the agenda, the minister added.

"If you're willing to come, we welcome you, but come to talk on terror as agreed in Ufa,” she said. “Pakistan has time till tonight to give an assurance the talks will only be on terror. If Pakistan does not agree, the talks will not happen."

Read: ‘Ready to visit New Delhi without any preconditions’

The national security advisers (NSA) of Pakistan and India were scheduled to meet in New Delhi on Sunday and Monday, but with both sides trading charges, talks were increasingly looking doubtful.

Earlier in Islamabad, Aziz, adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs, said he was "still prepared to go to New Delhi for NSA talks without any preconditions".

Meanwhile, according to sources, if the NSA-level talks are cancelled, the two advisers are likely to meet in New York at the UN General Assembly session in September.