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Thursday March 28, 2024

No compromise over meeting Hurriyat leaders, decides civil-military meeting

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will make no compromises over a planned meeting with Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders ahead of talks between the two countries' top security advisers in New Delhi, the political and military leadership decided on Friday.

A high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and also attended by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif in Islamabad today decided that India's

By GEO ENGLISH
August 21, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will make no compromises over a planned meeting with Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders ahead of talks between the two countries' top security advisers in New Delhi, the political and military leadership decided on Friday.

A high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and also attended by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif in Islamabad today decided that India's demand not to meet Kashmiri leaders is unacceptable.

It was decided by the political and military leadership that Pakistan would take Hurriyat leaders into complete confidence over the talks with India, sources said.

The meeting reiterated the Pakistani leadership's wish to resolve all outstanding bilateral issues through dialogue, the sources said.

National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz will be in the Indian capital for talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on August 23 and 24th August as part of efforts to resume the dialogue process between the two countries.

Hurriyat leaders had been invited to a meeting with Aziz at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi ahead of the talks.

India has threatened to cancel the NSA-level talks if Aziz goes ahead with the meeting.

"India has advised Pakistan yesterday that it would not be appropriate for Mr Sartaz Aziz to meet with Hurriyat (separatist) representatives in India," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said on Twitter.

"Such a meeting would not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Ufa understanding to jointly work to combat terrorism," he said.

On Thursday, India briefly placed three senior Hurriyat leaders under house arrest in Srinagar, only to release them hours later in what was seen widely as a flip-flop on the contentious issue.

But latest reports from Indian media Kashmiri leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Shah were put under house arrest on Friday, just two days ahead of the crucial talks in New Delhi on Sunday.

In 2014, India cancelled talks between the foreign secretaries of the two nations after Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit met with Hurriyat leaders.