Non-state actors should not be allowed to derail Pak-India talks: UK

British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond advises against setting Kashmir as pre-condition for starting dialogue; Sartaj admits intel warning sent to India, JIT to visit Pathankot in few days

ISLAMABAD: Non-state actors should not be allowed to derail the Pak-India peace process, said the visiting British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond while addressing a joint press conference with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz here on Tuesday.

Hammond also advised against setting the Kashmir issue as a pre-condition for starting the dialogue process between the two countries.He also held meetings with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and army chief General Raheel Sharif.

The regional security situation and Afghanistan were also issues that Hammond discussed in his meetings here where he saluted Pakistan for “its resilience and resolve against terrorism”. Phillip Hammond praised Pakistan’s efforts to get to the bottom of the Pathankot attack. To a query, he said, “I must appreciate the beginning of investigation by Pakistan into the Pathankot attack and we hope progress in the investigations”.

He also had a word of advice to not allow those who try to harm bilateral ties and continue with dialogue. "Terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a mutual problem which needs to be tackled jointly," he said while pointing to the trust deficit between the two countries.

He said there was trust deficit between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and both sides should work together to deny space to militants. Sartaj announced that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe into Pathankot airbase attack will be visiting India in the next few days at a time when it also admitted that it had sent a warning to New Delhi on Saturday about possible terror attacks in the coming weeks.

The announcement comes at a time when neither Pakistan has completed investigations nor has it requested the Indian High Commission to provide visas for the JIT which earlier was to leave by mid-March.

“The team will visit India in the next few days and hopefully then a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries will take place. The Indian high commissioner himself stated that foreign secretaries’ meeting is not linked to the Pathankot investigation,” Sartaj Aziz said.

Aziz was the first Pakistani official to admit that Pakistan’s National Security Adviser had warned his Indian counterpart of a possible terrorist threat on Saturday. “Sharing of intelligence among various nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world. However, this time it was somehow leaked to media. But this showed Pakistan’s commitment to fight terrorism,” Aziz said.

Pakistan has not denied involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammad in the Pathankot attack and says at least one telephone number used during the attack was traced to JeM’s headquarters.  India lately has also accused the Pakistan government of being in league with these non-state actors.

While Sartaj Aziz was optimistic about the foreign secretary level talks, the Indian foreign secretary last week made it very clear that for New Delhi investigations into the Pathankot attack was higher in priority than secretary level talks.