Pak envoy meets Kashmiri separatists

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit met Kashmiri separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani even as New Delhi and Islamabad are yet to finalise the date for their foreign secretaries meeting.

Basit met Mirwaiz and Geelani at the High Commission of Pakistan here on Monday and Tuesday respectively. New Delhi, however, preferred to look the other way with Ministry of External Affairs not airing its disapproval officially.

New Delhi earlier strongly reacted to Pakistan’s moves to consult with leaders of Hurriyat Conference and other separatists ahead of its scheduled engagements with India.

Sources told Deccan Herald that New Delhi had kept mum this time, because Basit had met Mirwaiz and Geelani at a time when no bilateral engagement was scheduled and announced. New Delhi and Islamabad are keen to salvage the peace-initiative recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart M Nawaz Sharif.