NEW DELHI: In a major break from the past, India raised the K-word ahead of Pakistan at Wednesday’s discussions, even as External Affairs Minister S M Krishna admonished Pakistan’s new Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for meeting with Hurriyat leaders before the Indian establishment. However, the two sides failed to discuss the crucial 26/11 Mumbai terror attack issue.
After nearly two hours of talks at Hyderabad House, Krishna said Kashmir had been on the agenda, even as Khar remained surprisingly silent on the issue.
According to sources, Krishna had raised the issue of Hurriyat Conference leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq meeting with Khar on Tuesday, ahead of her meeting with the Indian establishment. He raised the matter at the beginning of the discussions, pointing out that it did not create proper atmospherics for the dialogue process.
But, after the talks, he did not refer to this disagreement, and said India will continue to talk on Kashmir, raising quite a few eyebrows. “On Jammu and Kashmir, we will continue discussions with a view to finding a peaceful solution by narrowing divergences and building convergences,” he said.
Khar refrained from referring to her country’s main bugbear, Kashmir, when speaking to the media.
Pakistan has always termed Kashmir as its “core concern” in its prickly relations with India, as it had urged for the resolution of the issue to normalise ties. India had, however, earlier urged Pakistan to keep the vexed issue on the back-burner, as it had preferred to show progress in less controversial areas like trade and commerce.