Pak action in Valley to hit ties: India

New Delhi rules out restart of stalled talks

A day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh talked tough against Pakistan, New Delhi on Thursday signalled that Islamabad’s attempts to fish in troubled waters of Kashmir would cast a long shadow on the bilateral relations.

New Delhi almost ruled out the possibility of an early thaw in its relations with Islamabad, let alone restart of the stalled dialogue between the two neighbours in the coming months.

“New dynamics are at play (in India-Pakistan relations) and we cannot be oblivious to it,” Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said. He made the remark while responding to a query if Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were still in touch with their counterparts in Pakistan.

Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Secretary A A Chaudhry were to meet in Islamabad on January 15 this year to decide the modalities and schedule of the bilateral dialogue, which India and Pakistan had on December 15, 2015 agreed to restart.

But New Delhi postponed the meeting after a group of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists crossed over from Pakistan to India early in January and carried out an attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab.

 The postponement also deferred formal resumption of the bilateral dialogue between the two nations.

India, however, refrained from calling off the process to resume the bilateral dialogue with Pakistan even after the terror attack. The MEA spokesperson in New Delhi continued to maintain that the foreign secretary was in touch with his counterpart in Pakistan over phone.

Besides, Doval has also been in touch with Pakistan Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif’s National Security Advisor, Naseer Khan Janjua, on the probe into the terror attack in Pathankot.

Swarup’s comment on Thursday, however, indicated that Islamabad’s recent attempts to rake up the issue of Kashmir in international fora and foment unrest and extremism in the Valley prompted New Delhi to put its diplomatic contacts with the neighbouring country on hold.

The troubled ties between India and Pakistan hit a new low with Islamabad trying to once again raise its pitch on the issue of Kashmir, cashing in on the unrest in the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani last month.

The MEA spokesman remark ruling out possibility of early restart of bilateral talks came a day after the home minister made it clear in Parliament that India would never hold talks with Pakistan on Kashmir, but would only ask the neighbouring country to vacate the territory it had been illegally occupying.

Normal life remains disrupted in Valley

Curfew in some parts and restrictions on the assembly of people continued for the 34th day on Thursday in Kashmir Valley where normal life remained disrupted, PTI reports from Srinagar.

Curfew continued to remain in force in parts of the summer capital Srinagar and Anantnag town, a police official said here.

“Curfew is in force in five police stations in downtown (interior) area of Srinagar city and Anantnag town in south Kashmir,” the official said.

He said curfew was also clamped in Pampore town on Thursday in view of the death anniversary of former chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People’s League Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who hailed from the Saffron-town.