India sees no role for a third party in Indo-Pak talks

New Delhi: India is very clear that no third party has any role in Indo-Pak parleys despite Pakistan's stand that it would continue to speak to Kashmiri separatist leaders whom they term as "voice of Kashmiris", highly placed government sources said on Monday.

"What we have agreed with Pakistan during External Affairs Minister's visit to Islamabad is Bilateral Comprehensive Dialogue. So, it is a bilateral thing and no third party has any role to play in discussions between India and Pakistan," the sources said.

They were asked what will happen if Pakistani delegation again met Hurriyat separatists or the Kashmiri separatist leaders tried to meet them here in the run-up to the next month's meeting between the Indo-Pak Foreign Secretaries.

India is also very clear that any attempt to consult Kashmiri separatists will be highly undesirable. The Indian assertion assumes significance as Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit recently said at an event, held after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's Islamabad visit, there was no change in Islamabad's policy towards Hurriyat leaders as they represented the "voice of Kashmiris" and hoped that the dialogue process will not be halted even if there were roadblocks.

"Hurriyat represents aspirations of people of Kashmir. As far as we are concerned, there is no change in our policy towards them," Basit had said when asked whether Hurriyat leaders will be invited for dinner if the talks between India and Pakistan were held in the national capital.

The Pakistan envoy had also asserted "it was time both the neighbours behave as mature nations".

Angered by Pakistan's consultations with Kashmiri separatists India had in August last year called off talks between Foreign Secretaries of the two countries, telling it bluntly to choose between an Indo-Pak dialogue or hobnobbing with the separatists.

In August this year also, the NSA-level talks were called off after New Delhi had made it clear that the then Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz would not be allowed to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders during his visit.