We've been invited for talks by Sartaj Aziz, say Kashmiri separatist leaders

New Delhi: Separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday said the Pakistan envoy in New Delhi has invited them for talks with Pakistan National Advisor Sartaj Aziz before he holds talks with his Indian counterpart.

Both the factions of Huriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other separatist leaders such as Yasin Malik and Naeem Khan have been invited by Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit for talks on August 23.

“We received the invite over phone on Tuesday evening. The Pakistan envoy wants us (Geelani and his party leaders) to meet Sartaj Aziz before talks with India,” Ayaz Akbar, spokesperson for Geelani’s Huriyat Conference, said.

Aziz is scheduled to fly here for talks with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on August 23.

Farooq’s spokesperson Shahid-Ul-Islam also confirmed the invite and said: “We have been invited for the reception of Sartaj Aziz on the day of NSA talks. But we are yet to take a decision.”

In September 2014, ahead of the foreign secretary Level talks between India and Pakistan, India had called it off as Pakistan had invited separatist leaders for talks.

Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar called on PM Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming visit of prime minister’s advisor on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz to New Delhi.

Sharif’s discussions with the military top brass came a day after he chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the agenda of the NSA-level talks.

India had proposed August 23-24 for the meeting which was agreed between PM Sharif and his counterpart Narendra Modi in Ufa, Russia, last month.

The NSA talks are mandated to “discuss all issues connected to terrorism”, according to the Ufa joint statement.

India is expected to strongly voice its concerns regarding the recent Gurdaspur and Udhampur terror attacks by suspected Pakistani terrorists during the talks.

The two terror attacks and Pakistan refusing to invite the Jammu and Kashmir assembly speaker for a Commonwealth parliamentary meeting in Islamabad added to tension in bilateral ties, with speculation that the talks may be called off. However, India stuck to the dates it has proposed.

IANS