{"id":34280,"date":"2020-10-15T19:02:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T13:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=34280"},"modified":"2020-10-15T19:02:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T13:32:05","slug":"pakistan-says-ready-to-talk-to-india-if-kashmiris-included","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=34280","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan says ready to talk to India if Kashmiris included"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In a wide-ranging interview with an Indian journalist, PM Imran Khan\u2019s security adviser says Kashmir must be on the agenda for talks.<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Islamabad<\/strong>: Pakistan is prepared to sit down for talks with regional rival India, with whom it came close to an all-out military conflict last year, provided that Kashmiris are provided a seat at the table, Pakistan\u2019s national security adviser has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yusuf
Yusuf said there was a need for Kashmir dispute and the issues around ‘terrorism’ to be on the agenda for talks with India [File: Alex Wong\/Getty Images\/AFP]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will tell you very honestly, in the past year, we\u2019ve gotten messages about a desire for conversation [from India],\u201d Moeed Yusuf told Indian journalist Karan Thapar during a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Yusuf advises Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on national security and strategic policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have got to think strategically. These are two countries, have terrible relations, we need to sit down like adults,\u201d he told Thapar. \u201cThere are [\u2026] fundamentally two issues: Kashmir and terrorism. I want to talk about both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yusuf also accused India of sponsoring armed groups that carry out attacks on Pakistani soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

He said Pakistan had specific evidence linking India\u2019s intelligence services to the 2014 massacre of more than 130 pupils in Peshawar, a 2019 attack on a luxury hotel in southern Pakistan, a 2018 attack on a Chinese consulate in Karachi and the recent merger of several Pakistani Taliban factions into a single group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interview, conducted at times in a combative tone, was the first time a senior Pakistani official had spoken to Indian news media since August 2019, when India revoked a special status for the portion of the disputed territory of Kashmir that it administers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Pakistani NSA said there was a need for the Kashmir dispute and issues around \u201cterrorism\u201d to be on the agenda for any future talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
A man is detained by Indian policemen during a protest near the site of a gun battle between security forces and suspected rebels in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir [File: Danish Ismail\/Reuters]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are three parties to the Kashmir dispute. There is Pakistan, there is India and there is the principal party, the humans called Kashmiris,\u201d said Yusuf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Kashmiris can\u2019t stand the sight of India, can\u2019t bear to be in the same room as the Indians, how are we going to have a dialogue?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Yusuf did not specify which group or individuals he meant specifically when he called for the \u201cKashmiris\u201d to be a part of the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which both claim in full, but administer over separate portions divided by a Line of Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Last year, the two countries came close to another war, after Indian air strikes on Pakistani soil prompted aerial skirmishes that saw Pakistan launch retaliatory strikes and shoot down an Indian aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s action was sparked by the killing of more than 40 security personnel in a suicide attack in Indian-administered Kashmir\u2019s Pulwama town, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based armed groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Pakistan denies allowing armed groups to use its territory for action against other countries, specifically India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Fiction\u2019 and \u2018pipe dream\u2019: India<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In his interview, Yusuf also claimed India had sent a \u201cmessage for a desire for conversation\u201d with Pakistan, without elaborating further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut why is there a desire? In my reading, to talk, to get somewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has to be an enabling environment to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Relations between the two South Asian nuclear powers have remained frozen since India changed the constitutional status of Indian-administered Kashmir, absorbing the Muslim-majority territory into the country\u2019s administrative and political mainstream \u2013 a move decried by Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s government did not offer official comments on the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in a report on Wednesday, India\u2019s Hindustan Times newspaper\u00a0quoted a top Indian official\u00a0as saying Yusuf\u2019s claims were \u201cfiction\u201d and not just \u201cmischievous but also a pipe dream\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOfficials added that New Delhi\u2019s stand on holding any conversation with Pakistan had been consistent and was preconditioned on Islamabad taking concrete steps to build an atmosphere free from the shadow of terror and violence,\u201d said the report, which did not reveal the identity of the official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s intelligence agency targeted<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Pakistan has routinely accused India of being associated with attacks on Pakistani soil, particularly in the southwestern province of Balochistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, however, Yusuf made specific allegations against India\u2019s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW or R&AW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201c[In] 2019, the Indian embassy funds were used, more than a million US dollars, to effect the merger [of Pakistan Taliban],\u201d he said. \u201cCongratulations to the RAW, they have succeeded in creating an organisation to kill Pakistanis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yusuf accused RAW of being in contact with Malik Faridoon, a man he identified as the \u201cmastermind\u201d of the 2014 attack on a school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar that killed 132 children \u2013 one of the deadliest attacks ever on the country\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Students hold photographs of their schoolmates who were killed in a 2014 attack by Pakistan Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, during a protest in Peshawar [File: Fayaz Aziz\/Reuters]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have records of eight phone calls, we have records of phone numbers, we have records of handlers who orchestrated this entire thing sitting in a third country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

He also linked RAW to the attack on the Chinese consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in 2018, and to an attack on a luxury hotel in the southern port town of Gwadar last year that killed five people. India denies the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to Indian allegations that Pakistan had delayed the trials of those Pakistanis accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people, Yusuf said the law was taking its course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to follow the course of law, and India is not cooperating in the evidence it needs to provide,\u201d said Yusuf. \u201cGet the witnesses over, provide the evidence, I want to end this before anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made similar allegations regarding the slow pace of progress in the appeal of Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was convicted for spying and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Yusuf also responded to a question on Pakistan\u2019s silence on the issue of the alleged persecution of Uighur Muslims in China, a strategic ally and Pakistan\u2019s northeastern neighbour, by terming the allegations \u201ca non-issue\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven our delegations have visited, we have seen and we are 100 percent satisfied that it is a non-issue,\u201d he said. \u201cThe West can say what it wants [\u2026] we have zero concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

With inputs from Al Jazeera<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s Asad Hashim contributed to this report from Islamabad.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a wide-ranging interview with an Indian journalist, PM Imran Khan\u2019s security adviser says Kashmir must be on the agenda for talks. Islamabad: Pakistan is prepared to sit down for talks with regional rival India, with whom it came close to an all-out military conflict last year, provided that Kashmiris are provided a seat at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}