Yasin Malik says past Indian PMs ‘facilitated’ meetings between Pakistani and Kashmiri leaderships
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit continued to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders on Tuesday despite India’s reservations.
Basit met with the chairman of the hardline faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik. Basit was also scheduled to meet Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of the moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference later in the evening.
Basit had earlier met another Kashmiri separatist leader Shabbir Ahmed on Monday.
This prompted India to cancel the foreign secretary-level talks between New Delhi and Islamabad which was to be held on August 25 in Islamabad.
Reacting to the developments on Tuesday, Yasin Malik claimed that past Indian prime ministers had “facilitated” meetings between Kashmiri separatists and visiting Pakistani leaders in India.
He said, “For the past 24 years all prime ministers — VP Singh, IK Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh — facilitated such meetings … Even now, the person at the helm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said on record that he will follow in the footsteps of Vajpayee. When (then president Pervez) Musharraf came for the Agra Summit (2001), he held meetings with Kashmiri leaders.”
“Does it mean those prime ministers were wrong, that the previous seven were wrong when they facilitated such meetings; and Atal Bihari did this … Does it mean that they were all wrong, and this is ‘Mr Right’?”
US terms cancellation of talks ‘unfortunate’
The United States has said it was “unfortunate” that the India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talks have fallen through and urged both the countries to take steps to improve bilateral ties irrespective of what happened “irrespective of what happened”.
US state department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf, on Monday, said, “It is unfortunate that planned talks between India and Pakistan have fallen through.”
“We continue to support efforts by India and Pakistan to improve all aspects of their bilateral relations. And that is a position we will continue making clear to both parties here,” she said in response to a question.