ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI : In a further provocation to India, Advisor to the Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz has warned that Pakistan was a nuclear-armed nation and knew how to defend itself.
”Modi’s India acts as if they are a regional superpower, we are a nuclear armed ‘country and we know to defend ourselves,” Mr Aziz was quoted by Pakistani media as saying.
His comments came a day after Pakistan called off the NSA talks refusing to give up its position on meeting Hurriyat leaders and including Kashmir on the agenda in the talks that were to be held only on the issue of terror as per the Ufa statement.
Mr Aziz also accused Indian intelligence agency RAW of fuelling terrorism in his country, and said they have got evidence of the agency’s involvement.
He said India wanted normalisation of relations only on its own terms, and they wanted to talk about trade and connectivity and not much else.
The Advisor to Mr Sharif also stated that India should hold a referendum in occupied Kashmir, and the people would decide their own fate.
India had described the Pakistan move to cancel the talks as very unfortunate and refuted Islamabad’s charge that it was setting any preconditions.
Mr Aziz had on Friday said Kashmir was very much part of the NSA talks while India said the Ufa joint statement released after the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries never mentioned the word Kashmir, and explicitly said the NSAs would talks only on terror.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj a day before the scheduled NSA meeting said Mr Aziz was welcome to India for talks he should involve any party and include Kashmir in the agenda. Islamabad rejected the offer, saying ”Pakistan has carefully analysed the contents of the Press Conference of Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj this afternoon. ”We have come to the conclusion that the proposed NSA level talks will not serve any purpose, if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down by the Minister.”
India has described the Pakistan decision as ”very unfortunate.” (AGENCIES)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel