— Power brokers pushing Islamabad, New Delhi to reopen dialogue process
ISLAMABAD: Raising a smoke screen of a spat over the recent meeting of Indian saboteur Kulbhushan Jadhav, Pakistan and India have reopened a backchannel to discuss ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC), the high-profile case of an Indian agent and the possibility of a bilateral trade.
The secret meeting between National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval comes on heels of a meeting of Jadhav with his mother and wife here in Islamabad. Though Islamabad had arranged the meeting purely on humanitarian grounds the Indian media tried to shift focus from the positive gesture by raising unnecessary issues.
Successive efforts made to get the version from Janjua remained unsuccessful as the adviser chose not to answer several queries sent to his mobile phone number. The adviser’s spokeswoman initially confirmed the meeting when contacted on Thursday but failed to get a version from Janjua, a media-savvy retired military officer.
Sources have confirmed to Pakistan Today that Janjua had met his Indian counterpart in Bangkok on Tuesday to discuss issues of the national significance. “Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in the loop about Janjua’s meeting as protocol section of Pakistan’s Mission in Bangkok facilitated the travelling of the adviser,” they said.
They asserted that regional and international power brokers were pushing Islamabad and New Delhi for reopening the dialogue process. “Moscow, Beijing and Washington have facilitated the dialogue process between the two neighbours. The meeting which lasted for over two hours was broad-based and issues of ceasefire violations, Jadhav’s case and mutual trade came under discussion,” a source privy to the process said.
China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying had also hinted at the possibility of a dialogue at a briefing held on December 27. “As a common neighbour and friend to both Pakistan and India, China hopes that the two sides could calmly and properly deal with the relevant issue through dialogue and consultation and jointly work for peace and stability in South Asia,” she said.
Indian media also reported the meeting held on December 26 stating that a ‘neutral venue’ was chosen in the Thai capital to keep the interaction under wraps. Though the Indian officials insisted that the meeting was not linked to Jadhav’s case and it had actually was a pre-scheduled, officials in Pakistan say that India wanted Pakistan to settle the matter bilaterally.
“India wants a trade-off over Jadhav and they are eager to do whatever is essential to get the Indian Navy officer free,” the official said, adding that Pakistan was not ready to let the Indian terrorist free. The source said that Adviser Janjua was taking into confidence the country’s civilian and the military leadership on board over his talks.
Soon after landing back from Bangkok, Janjua directly went to Lahore and gave a five-hour-long briefing to former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on his meeting with Doval. The briefing by Janjua to the former prime minister was not contradicted by the Pakistan Muslim League-N. Rather, a ruling party source had hinted at Sharif’s interest in normalisation of relations with India.
A local daily cited a PML-N leader quoting Nawaz Sharif as saying at the meeting, “There is a dire need to improve ties with the neighbouring countries.” The report said that the former prime minister said he always talked about friendly relations with Pakistan’s neighbours because, without them, problems being faced by the people of the region could not be solved.
“War is no solution to any problem,” Nawaz was quoted as saying. The Bangkok meeting came in the wake of a sharp statement by NSA Janjua on India-Pakistan relations. Addressing a national security seminar in Islamabad on December 18, Janjua was quoted as saying, “The stability of the South Asian region hangs in a delicate balance, and the possibility of nuclear war cannot be ruled out.”
He also stated that special efforts were needed to maintain balance in South Asia, which is a mistake away from a major catastrophe. It was not the first meeting between the two NSAs in a third country. In December 2015, the two advisers, along with the two foreign secretaries, had met, again in Bangkok, which was not revealed till after the meeting. That was followed, within days, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise stop-over in Lahore, to wish then prime minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday on December 25.
The meetings in third countries afford the two officials some space, away from the limelight, which the continual gaze of the media on both the sides of the border entails. It also gets around the tricky issue of the Pakistani visiting dignitary’s meeting with the leadership of the Hurriyat Conference, something which had led to cancellation of his visit to New Delhi in August 2015.
Tuesday’s meeting in Bangkok, which is believed to have lasted more than two hours, was kept under wraps, but it is believed that tensions over the LoC was also discussed. The cross fire on the LoC and working boundary has recently been very active this year. Ceasefire violations at Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary by India’s army have become a norm during the ongoing year as India has martyred 45 civilians and injured 192 in 11540 ceasefire violations only in year 2017 – the highest number of such violations since year 2003.
The Indian Army claims to have lost 31 soldiers on the LoC in 2017. Janjua is believed to have raised the issue of Indian army’s atrocities in the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), besides targeting of civilians in villages along the Line of Control.