In a fresh exchange of letters between India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has reiterated his earlier position and willingness to go for talks to Islamabad but the conditions remain the same. He will talk only on cross border terrorism and Pak interference in J&K, nothing else at the moment. The letter sent by Diplomatic Bag on Tuesday was delivered to Pakistani FS Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Wednesday by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale.
This letter was in response to Chaudhry’s second letter sent on August 19, where he ignored India’s proposal to first discuss terrorism, and issues that hamper peace talks between the two countries and talk only about Kashmir. Blaming Indian security forces for human rights violations in Kashmir, Chaudhry’s August 19 letter, second in the last ten days, invited Jaishankar to visit “Islamabad by the end of this month to discuss the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, with a view to finding a fair and just solution, as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions and aspirations” of the people of the State.
Jaishankar had last week in response to Aziz’s first letter on August 15, specified five points on which he would like to have candid discussions besides getting an update on investigations on Pathankot airbase and 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. In the same letter, the FS mentioned the fact that India would like Pak to vacate the parts of Kashmir that are under its occupation currently.
In this second letter too, Jaishankar has reiterated that Pak-sponsored cross border terrorism is the core issue for India to discuss and it will not deviate from it despite Islamabad’s efforts to dilute the main issue and distract the world from its terrorism-supporting activities.
Jaishankar during a meeting with journalists last week had said that terrorism has become so central to the relationship with Pakistan that it has made difficult for the relationship to progress. He blamed lack of progress in Pathankot airbase attack, cross border attacks, infiltration of Hizbul Mujahiddin and lashkar e Tayyeba terrorist like Bahadur Ali as the new challenges in the relationship. “The rest of the region is with us on the issues of connectivity and other things. But we have one stand out country which has attitude to use terrorism as state policy,” the FS said.