India calls off Foreign Sec-level talks with Pak

Angered by Pakistan's consultations with Kashmiri separatists, India today called off next week's talks between Foreign Secretaries, telling it bluntly to choose between an Indo-Pak dialogue or hobnobbing with the separatists.
In a dramatic setback to efforts to resume the stalled bilateral dialogue, India cancelled the talks scheduled to be held in Islamabad on August 25, raising strong objections to consultations held with separatist Hurriyat leaders by Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
Shortly before the first of the separatist leaders Shabir Shah drove into the Pakistan mission here, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh telephoned Basit and told him "in clear and unambiguous terms that Pakistan's continued efforts to interfere in India's internal affairs were unacceptable.

"It was underlined that the Pakistani High Commissioner's meetings with these so-called leaders of the Hurriyat undermines the constructive diplomatic engagement initiated by Prime Minister Modi in May on his very first day in office," official Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
Officials said Singh, who was to reach Islamabad on August 24, told the High Commissioner that "you can have dialogue with India or separatists."
Since Basit went ahead with the meeting with Shah which was to be followed with consultations with other separatist leaders tomorrow, India announced cancellation of the talks agreed upon by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in May in a bid to break two-year- old stalemate in the bilateral dialogue process.