Indo-Pak talks: Govt says NSAs will meet

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says talks to focus on terrorism

The government on Thursday defended its decision to not call off the India-Pakistan National Security Advisor (NSA) talks, despite Pakistani high commission inviting Kashmiri separatist leaders to a reception to meet Sartaj Aziz, the visiting NSA.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the NSA talks would focus only on the issue of terrorism. The government’s defence came on a day of some drama in Kashmir, where Hurriyat leaders Umar Farooq, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and some others were put under house arrest but released a couple of hours later.

More security personnel were posted outside the house of hardline leader Syed Ahmed Shah Geelani, who is already under house arrest. Yasin Malik was taken into preventive custody from his Maisuma home and lodged at the Kothibagh police station.

Officials were tightlipped about reasons for the house arrests, but this is seemingly to do with the NSA talks, between Aziz and India’s Ajit Kumar Doval on Sunday. Delhi does not want the Hurriyat leaders to meet Aziz before the talks.

In Delhi, Prasad said: "This meeting is for talks on terrorism and the need to prevent it." The minister said the agenda was settled at the Ufa (Russia) meeting between prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. “The first was the meeting between NSAs to talk on terrorism, including the exchange of voice samples of 26/11 (the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks). This meeting is for talks on terror and the need to prevent it," he said.

Responding to a series of questions at a briefing on the decisions of the Union Cabinet on the house arrest of theHurriyat leaders, Prasad said he would not make a comment on the "policing exercise" of the government of Jammu and Kashmir, as the state police "is free to take appropriate action".

Asked whether India was "okay" with the Pakistan government NSA seeking a meeting with Kashmiri separatists, the minister said foreign policy initiatives are not determined via media debates.

"The stand of the government, I have told you very clearly and categorically, is that it is a talk on terrorism,\" he said.

In Srinagar, stagte chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed expressed hope that the talks would bring peace on the Line of Control. \"There is tension along the borders in the state...people are fleeing because of (artillery) shelling. I hope the NSA-level meeting evolves a strategy to stop all this,\" he said.

The Pak high commission had invited Hurriyat leaders to meet Aziz at a reception on Sunday evening, while Geelani has been invited for a meeting on Monday.

India had cancelled foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan in August last year, after the Pak envoy here had invited separatist leaders for consultations, ahead of the scheduled meeting in Islamabad.

Former CM and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said state governments had never detained Hurriyat leaders in the past to prevent them from visiting the Pak high commission in Delhi. He claimed the India-Pak talks were being held \"under international pressure\", with both countries hoping the other would pull out.