Pakistan will not start talks with India without Kashmir, says Sartaj Aziz Pakistan continued to adopt an unusually tough posture against India Tuesday with its National Security Advisor saying it will not start bilateral talks without Kashmir on the agenda after its Defence Minister accused India of links with Taliban. Sartaj Aziz raised the Kashmir issue during a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry who asked the two neighbours to resume talks to overcome “historical mistrust”. Aziz said the cancellation of talks last August after the Pakistani envoy in New Delhi met with Kashmiri separatist leaders showed India was not interested in discussing the issue. “Pakistan will not start talks with India without Kashmir,” he said. Aziz also claimed that India was involved in “unprovoked” firing across the border, and appealed to the US for help in maintaining peace. “We hope that the US as an influential member of the international community can prevail upon India to work with Pakistan towards regional peace,” he said. Kerry, meanwhile, expressed concern over the tension at the border between the two neighbours. “We continue to be deeply concerned by the recent spate of increased violence along the working boundary and the Line of Control,” Kerry said, adding that it was “profoundly in the interests of Pakistan and India to move this relationship forward.” Earlier, late on Monday, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif alleged that India was helping terror groups in his country. “India has designs on Pakistan and is helping militants to carry out heinous acts inside Pakistan,” Asif told Dawn News. He said that India wanted to keep Pakistan busy with “skirmishes on the eastern border so that the country remains distracted from the war on its western borders and the terrorism within.” Asif alleged that the “Taliban have links with India”. “Also, India’s involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan cannot be ignored,” Asif claimed. Asked to provide evidence for his accusation, Asif appeared to dodge the question saying his allegations were based “as much on conviction as on experience”.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 11:12:19 +0000
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