Farooq Abdullah urges separatists not to meet Sartaj Aziz ahead of NSA-level talks

Srinagar: NC leader Farooq Abdullah on Friday urged separatist leaders not to meet Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz during his visit to India for talks with his Indian counterpart so that the two countries can find a way of ending tensions along the border in Jammu and Kashmir. [caption id=“attachment_2362120” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Farooq Abdullah. AFP[/caption] “I request them (separatists) not to meet Aziz and let the National Security Adviser-level talks go ahead between the two countries… may be something comes out of these talks that will (deal with) cross-border shelling,” the former J-K chief minister said. Abdullah was responding to the Ministry of External Affairs’ ‘advice’ to Pakistan not to go ahead with Aziz’s engagement with the Kashmiri separatists during his visit to India for talks with NSA Ajit Doval on 23 August. Abdullah said that if the talks are called off by India, cross-border shelling would resume, “may be, with added intensity”. He, meanwhile, slammed “vested interests” in both India and Pakistan for being opposed to peace prevailing in J-K. National Conference spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu claimed that both India and Pakistan were trying to “wriggle out” of the dialogue process. “While terrorism is a grave concern, any India-Pakistan talks without Kashmir on the agenda is not going to make much of a headway. The two countries are trying to wriggle out of the dialogue process,” said Mattu. As to the MEA’s advice to Pakistan regarding that country’s NSA’s proposed meeting with separatists, Mattu said such interactions have been taking place in the past and there was nothing new in it. PTI