ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Office has said that the planned meeting of the advisor on the national security Sartaj Aziz with the Kashmir separatist leaders in New Delhi is a routine matter.
In his weekly media briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, the Foreign Office Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah confirmed that Sartaj Aziz will meet the Hurriyat Conference leaders in New Delhi as consultations with them is a routine matter.
The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on Wednesday invited the Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik to have a discussion with Sartaj Aziz when the later will reach India on August 23 for security talks.
Sartaj Aziz will engage in a meeting with the Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval during his stay in New Delhi, aiming to normalize the ties between the two neighbors.
The spokesman said that Pakistan and India are in the process of finalizing agenda for the national security advisor-level talks in New Delhi.
Earlier in the day, the Indian authorities in the occupied Kashmir put under house arrest the Hurriyat leaders including Geelani and Umar Farooq in an apparent attempt to prevent them from meeting Sartaj Aziz. However, after a few hours they were set free.
The national security advisor-level meeting between Pakistan and India is being held as per agreement reached between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at their talks in the Russian City of Ufa on July 10.
The two prime minister had agreed that a meeting of the national security advisors level will be convened to “discuss all issues connected to terrorism”.
