New Delhi, Aug. 22: Pakistan tonight called off the national security adviser talks scheduled to begin tomorrow, hours after India set a midnight deadline for it to dump two crucial demands if it wanted the dialogue to be held.
'Pakistan reiterates that the scheduled NSA level talks cannot be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India,' a statement by the Pakistani foreign office said.
Earlier in the day, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had said NSA Ajit Doval will only hold talks with his counterpart Sartaj Aziz if Islamabad confirms before midnight it will not raise Kashmir in the meet, nor host Hurriyat leaders at its mission during Aziz's visit.
'Talks are only on if Pakistan gives a commitment tonight that Mr Aziz will not meet Hurriyat leaders and will not go beyond terrorism,' Sushma said, speaking here 90 minutes after Aziz had questioned India's commitment to the talks in Islamabad. 'Otherwise, there will be no talks.'
The tough deadline, officials conceded, was meant to avoid the possibility of an open-ended agenda for talks tomorrow that would have allowed Aziz to surprise Doval. India, officials said, did not want to risk a sequence of events involving Aziz arriving, India placing Hurriyat leaders under arrest, and the Pakistan NSA then flying back without talks. In 2001, Pakistan had pulled out midway from the Agra summit amid similar differences.Today, efforts by the two countries to each pin the blame for cancellation of NSA talks - agreed to by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Ufa, Russia, last month - on the other sharpened.
Pakistan has insisted that the NSAs talk about terrorism, Kashmir and cross-border firing along the Line of Control, referring to a part of the agreement in Ufa that said the countries 'are prepared to discuss all outstanding issues'.
'The word 'K' (Kashmir) is very much present in this sentence because everyone knows that the most important outstanding issue between the two countries is the future of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the UN resolutions,' Aziz said in Islamabad early afternoon.
The Pakistan NSA began his comments by saying he was disappointed 'India has virtually cancelled the first ever official talks between the national security advisers.'
Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit had invited Hurriyat leaders for a reception tomorrow night to allow them to meet Aziz - as has been Islamabad's practice for several years. India, which had called off foreign secretary talks almost exactly a year back after similar meetings between separatists and Basit, objected and on Thursday formally 'advised' Pakistan to withdraw the invitations.
India, Aziz said today, was 'assuming the right to determine the guest list for the high commissioner's reception'.
'I expect that global think tanks and foreign policy experts will carefully ponder over this important question: Is it conceivable that a country like India will cancel the first ministerial interaction between the two countries since Mr Modi's take over, on such flimsy grounds?' Aziz said.
Aziz argued Pakistan was not scared of suggestions that Doval would present him with a dossier full of evidence implicating Islamabad in terrorism on Indian soil.
'In fact I will also be carrying three dossiers on RAW's involvement in promoting terrorism in Pakistan,' he said, referring to India's external intelligence arm, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), before posing with the dossiers for cameras at the end of his media interaction.
The Pakistan NSA said he would hand the dossiers over to Doval in New York on the margins of the UN General assembly next month if he didn't fly to New Delhi tomorrow.
'I can then also share them with the UN secretary general,' Aziz said, in a veiled threat that Pakistan would try to internationalise its allegations against India.
