New Delhi: After a day of high drama and confusion over the two-hour house arrest of Jammu and Kashmir separatist leaders on Thursday, there is a rift within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over holding National Security Advisor-level talks with Pakistan.
Senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha said the Narendra Modi government was deviating from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee line that talks and terror can't go hand in hand.
"It is a clear deviation from the line taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004. Terror and talks cannot happen simultaneously, we have to wait for sometime but both sides are in a hurry to go to UNGA to sort out issues. Hurriyat are Indians and we should only talk to them, not Pakistan."
Pakistan has also made it clear that it will raise Kashmir issue in the talks, said sources.
Earlier in the day, Hurriyat leaders including Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah were put under house arrest and were released after Peoples Democratic Party MP Mehbooba Mufti intervened. They were put under house arrest ahead of their proposed meeting with Pakistani NSA Sartaj Aziz in Delhi, said sources.
Farooq said, "Hurriyat has no intention of scuttling Indo-Pak dialogue. We are merely attending a reception hosted by Pakistan. The government must decide how they want to move forward on Jammu and Kashmir issue. Delhi wants to follow a military policy not a political one."
But Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik decided not to attend the reception of Pakistan High Commission and instead he would send a two-member delegation.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah said, "Meeting with Kashmiri leaders is common practice. We always meet Kashmiri leaders before talks."
According to government sources, the brief arrest is a message to Pakistan and the separatists to refrain from talks. Sources said that the house arrest can be reimposed at a better time if needed.
Pakistan High Commission in Delhi had invited separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for a meeting on August 24 with Aziz, who will be in Delhi for talks with Indian NSA Ajit Doval. Moderate separatist leaders have also been invited for a reception being hosted by the High Commission in New Delhi for the visiting Pakistani official on August 23.
India had cancelled Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan in August 2014 after its envoy invited separatist leaders for consultations ahead of the meeting in Islamabad.
Criticising Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said state governments had never detained Hurriyat leaders in the past to prevent them from visiting the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi.
He claimed the Indo-Pakistan talks were being held "under international pressure" with both countries hoping the other will pull out.
"Shelling, infiltration, terror attacks and now Hurriyat arrests, clearly no side wants to talk and yet neither side has the guts to call it off," the former chief minister said in a series of tweets.
"Shame on Mufti Syed for arresting on demand. He had no business following his master's orders and detaining the Hurriyat leaders like this. J&K state governments in the past have NEVER detained the APHC leaders so as to prevent them from visiting the Pak High Commission. If the Centre was so keen to prevent the Hurriyat leaders from meeting Sartaj Aziz they should've been told to detain them themselves," Omar said on Twitter.
"I've never seen an Indo-Pak dialogue where both sides are so keen to sabotage it. India & Pakistan competing to give reasons to call off talks. It's so obvious that Ufa and now these planned NSA talks are under international pressure with both India and Pakistan hoping the other will pull out, (sic)" he tweeted.
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