India, Pak held NSA-level talks post Jadhav-family meet: MEA

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday confirmed that National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan held bilateral talks last month.

The statement comes days after media reports stated that NSAs Ajit Doval and retired Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua held a "secret" meeting in Thailand on December 27.

"I am agreeing that talks took place and our issue was eliminating terrorism from the region, we of course raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in those talks," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, in a media briefing.

The spokesperson stated that Doval and Janjua also dwelled upon on how terrorism should not affect "this region" in their "operational-level talks."

"India and Pakistan had a dialogue process. There are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers," Kumar added, "Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead."

Kumar also stated that these operational-level mechanisms do take place. "but we don't announce these meetings."

Several media reports had stated that the two NSAs met in Bangkok on December 26, a day after the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav met him in Islamabad and were subjected to humiliation by Pakistani authorities and a section of the local press.