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| Talks or no talks, Pak in constant touch with Hurriyat | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 18: "All the bilateral issues are to be addressed mutually between India and Pakistan and this was recently reiterated in a joint statement issued after the External Affairs Minister's meeting with the Pakistan Prime Minister and his Foreign Affairs Advisor in Islamabad," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Thursday.
He also added that Hurriyat leadership had no say whatever in the talks between the two countries. Vikas Swarup responded when asked "if Pakistani delegation again met Hurriyat separatists or the Kashmiri separatist leaders tried to meet them here".
Last August, the NSA-level talks were called off after New Delhi made it clear that the then Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz would not be allowed to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders in New Delhi. New Delhi had also cancelled the Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan in August 2014 following the meeting between Pakistan High Commissioner to Delhi Abdul Basit and Hurriyat leaders like Mirwaiz, Shabir Shah and Yasin Malik.
The statement of Vikas Swarup is just meaningless, as Pakistan Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and Abdul Basit are already in touch with Kashmiri separatists. Only recently, Nawaz Sharif wrote letters to Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Aiysa Andrabi to express his thanks to them for their support to the Islamabad's stand on J&K and reiterate Pakistan's moral, political and diplomatic support to ongoing separatist movement in the Valley. He wrote these letters before he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 30 at Paris in France.
Not only this, Abdul Basit on December 13 said "there was no change in Pakistan's policy towards Hurriyat leaders as they represent voice of Kashmiris". "Hurriyat represents aspirations of people of Kashmir. As far as we are concerned, there is no change in our policy towards them," he said while speaking at Aaj Tak Agenda" programme, held in Delhi. He made this statement when asked "whether Hurriyat leaders will be invited for dinner if there were talks between India and Pakistan here and if they happen to be in Delhi". It needs to be underlined that Basit made these provocative statements four days after the Islamabad's declaration on resumption of dialogue process between the two nations.
Basit not only taunted New Delhi by declaring that there was no change in Pakistan's policy towards Kashmiri separatists, but he also met with a Hurriyat delegation at Pakistan High Commission on December 15. The meeting took place on the day when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made a strong pitch for resuming dialogue with Pakistan. The meeting was arranged to primarily discuss the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan and also to convey the message to Basit to maintain a consistent policy on Kashmir. This message was delivered by the Hurriyat delegation on behalf of its chief Syed Ali Geelani.
Basit by holding this meeting on December 15 and raising the Kashmir card only attempted to bring the spotlight back on Kashmir in the Indo-Pak dialogue. Swaraj, in her Parliament statement the same day, tried doing just the opposite.
Hours after their meeting, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) issued a press statement in Srinagar which said: "A delegation sent by chairman Syed Ali Geelani today held a detailed meeting for one-and-a-half hours with Basit. They also discussed the Kashmir policy. The APHC delegation handed them a message of Geelani that Pakistan should continue to maintain consistency and firmness over its Kashmir policy and play an active role in highlighting the human rights violations committed by Indian forces in Jammu & Kashmir on the international forums".
All this should call the bluff of the Indian Foreign Office and suggest that it is only seeking to fool the Indian nation by making meaningless and senseless statements. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan has been keeping the Hurriyat leaders in the loop and the Modi Government knows all this. It can't fool the Indian nation, as it has already understood what the Modi Government stands for. After all, it was the Prime Minister and the BJP high command that approved the agenda of alliance - agenda that was designed to help Kashmiri leadership to push forward their separatist agenda and enable Pakistan to have an effective say in this part of J&K. |
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