Will only discuss cross-border terror, India tells Pak

India is ready to hold talks with Pakistan only on the issue of terrorism emanating from the territory of the neighbouring country and affecting the entire region.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday wrote to his Pakistani counterpart,
A A Chaudhry, stating that New Delhi was willing to discuss with Islamabad only issues concerning cross-border terrorism, which remained its “core concern”.

Jaishankar’s letter to Chaudhry also mentioned that terror emanating from Pakistan was targeting not only India, but also other nations in the region.

India’s reference to cross-border terrorism being sponsored from Pakistan and affecting other countries in the region came to public domain on a day when Afghanistan charged that Wednesday’s attack on the American University in Kabul had been “organised and orchestrated from the other side of the Durand Line (Pakistan)”. Thirteen people were killed and 45 injured in the terror attack.

Jaishankar’s letter was in response to a communiqué from Chaudhry, who on August 19 had invited his counterpart in New Delhi to travel to Islamabad “by the end of this month to discuss the Jammu and 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 Jammu and Kashmir”.

The foreign secretary’s letter was delivered to his counterpart in the Pakistan government through diplomatic channels on Wednesday.

New Delhi’s latest communiqué to Islamabad also stressed that Pakistan should immediately vacate the territories it had been illegally occupying in Jammu and Kashmir, which had been and would always remain an integral part of India, sources told DH. 

India, last week, set clear terms for talks with Pakistan — outlining a five-point agenda and asking the neighbouring country to stop exporting terror and inciting violence in Jammu and Kashmir.