Peace on LoC necessary to engage with Pakistan: India
New Delhi – India Saturday reiterated the need for peace and tranquility on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir if India and Pakistan were to engage.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told reporters that Sartaj Aziz, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s foreign affairs adviser, would be meeting External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on the sidelines of the Nov 11-12 Asia-Europe Meeting here.
He said their talks would “take up the outcome of the last meeting – that for India and Pakistan to engage it is important, as a precondition that there should be peace and tranquility on the Line of Control… And where to go forward based on their assessment on the situation elapsed.”
Aziz has also sought a meeting with the prime minister during the visit.
The Pakistani minister is reportedly meeting with some Hurriyat leaders in Delhi.
Sources in the pro-Azadi Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) told IANS in Srinagar that JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik has received an invitation to meet Aziz when the latter arrives in New Delhi Nov 10.
Sources in the hardline Hurriyat group headed by Syed Ali Geelani and moderate Hurriyat headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also confirmed that the two senior separatist leaders have received an invitation from Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner Mansoor Ahmad Khan to meet Aziz in New Delhi.
