India will only discuss cross-border militancy with Pakistan, says MEA
Vikas Swarup said they will also bring up other issues like infiltration by militants like Bahadur Ali and investigating the Mumbai and Pathankot attacks.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup on Saturday set certain conditions for talks with Pakistan, and said that India will talk to Pakistan only on “relevant issues” including cross-border militancy and the Mumbai and Pathankot attacks, reported NDTV.
His comments came a day after Pakistan’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Islamabad wants to have an exclusive discussion with New Delhi over the Jammu and Kashmir issue. Swarup said the relevant issues right now were, “Stoppage of Pakistani support for cross-border terrorism, infiltration of terrorists like Bahadur Ali, parading of internationally recognised terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, and follow-up on the Mumbai attack trial and the Pathankot attack investigation in Pakistan.”
Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had also said that India can only have a discussion with Pakistan if it is about the actions taken by the neighbouring country to stop cross-border militancy, reported NDTV. Aziz had invited India for the talks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the region known as Pakistan occupied Kashmir belongs to India during an all-party meeting on Kashmir.
The issue of cross-border militancy came to the fore after the National Investigation Agency revealed that Pakistani militant Bahadur Ali had confessed to training in Lashkar-e-Taiba camps and infiltrating India. Pakistan, however, has contested such claims and rejected allegations of any infiltration across the Line of Control.