India should not hold dialogue with Pak: Samajwadi Party

With Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh scheduled to visit Pakistan next week for the SAARC meeting, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Friday said dialogue with Islamabad will yield no results.

Samajwadi Party leader Narensh Agarwal said Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's statement in favour of the terrorists has spoilt the relationship between the two Asian neighbours.

"Normally dialogue is the way things are sorted out, war is the last option. It will be great if we can bring things back on track through dialogue. But I don't think that we will get any result after holding talks with Pakistan," said Agarwal.

"The kind of statement Nawaz Sharif had made in favour of the terrorists has spoiled the environment all the more. And in the wake of this India should not resume talks with Pakistan so soon, it should show its anger," he added.

The Home Minister will attend the SAARC Home/Interior Ministers meeting in Islamabad on August 3 and 4.

Sources, meanwhile, said the Home Minister will raise the issue of cross-border terrorism at the meeting.

At the 13th SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in November 2005, the Heads of State decided that the SAARC Interior/Home Ministers would meet annually preceded by a meeting of the Interior/Home Secretaries to strengthen cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism, which they agreed was a challenge to all states and a threat to humanity, and could not be justified on any grounds.

The first meeting of SAARC Interior/Home Ministers was held in Dhaka on May 11, 2006, followed by a meeting in New Delhi in 2007.