ISLAMABAD: Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reference to Balochistan in his Independence Day speech, Pakistan formally invited India for dialogue over the Kashmir issue in a letter handed over to the Indian high commissioner here on Monday, an offer which New Delhi has already and emphatically rejected.
The letter was given to high commissioner Gautam Bambawale hours after Prime Minister Modi accused Pakistan of grave
human rights violations in the volatile Balochistan , Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It was addressed from Pakistan’s foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry to his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar.
“The letter highlights the international obligation of both countries, India and Pakistan, to resolve the
Jammu and Kashmir dispute , in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions,” said Nafees Zakaria, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson.
The move came days after Sartaj Aziz, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s adviser on foreign affairs, announced Pakistan’s willingness to invite India for talks on Kashmir in the wake of unrest in the valley. Aziz had made this announcement last week at a news conference in Islamabad, saying, “Foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry would soon write a letter to his Indian counterpart for dialogue on Kashmir.”
In New Delhi, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup responded to Aziz’s remarks saying that before the start of dialogue
Pakistan must address “incitement to violence and terrorism across the border, parading of internationally recognised terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, and sincere follow up on the Mumbai attack trial and the Pathankot attack investigation.”
Pakistan termed the Indian
PM’s Independence Day speech as an attempt to divert world attention from the growing unrest in Jammu & Kashmir.
“Modi was trying to divert world attention from the grim tragedy. Thousands of unarmed (Kashmiri) youth are protesting every day for their right to self-determination,” Sartaj Aziz said. In a statement issued by the foreign office, Aziz claimed that “more than 70 innocent Kashmiris have been killed while more than 6,000 injured”.
“There is constant curfew and complete media blackout for the past 37 days. These events have nothing to do with terrorism. It’s an indigenous movement for self-determination, a right promised to the Kashmiris by the Security Council,” he said.
Aziz further said, “India is a large country, in fact the second largest in the world, and this must be acknowledged. But a large country does not automatically become a great country, especially when it unleashes such brute force against innocent citizens to suppress their right to protest or when it deliberately uses pellet guns to permanently destroy the eye sight of over 100 youth.”
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