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Defiant Pak envoy meets 3 Kashmiri separatist leaders New Delhi, August 19 After meeting People’s Democratic Front (PDF) leader Shabir Shah yesterday, the Pakistani envoy today held protracted back-to-back meetings with Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik and moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Basit’s talks with the separatists have further annoyed New Delhi, putting a question mark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September. “If Pakistan continues to behave in this manner, we see no point in talking to them,” a source said. During their meetings with the Pakistani envoy, the separatists are understood to have asked Islamabad to keep pressing New Delhi to resolve the Kashmir issue by involving the people of Kashmir in the talks. Geelani was of the view that Pakistan should not show any anxiety in arriving at an accord such as the Simla Agreement on Kashmir since it would not be in the interest of the Kashmiris. The separatists criticised New Delhi’s decision to call off the Islamabad talks because of Pakistan envoy’s meetings with them. “Pakistan traditionally holds consultations with us on Kashmir since Atal Behari Vajpayee’s time…there was nothing new this time around,” Malik told mediapersons before going into talks with the envoy. Various Hindu organisations, meanwhile, demonstrated near the Pakistan High Commission, protesting Basit’s meetings with the separatists. Amid tight security at the Pakistan mission, demonstrators raised slogans against Basit and called for his expulsion for breaching diplomatic propriety. Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh had yesterday asked the Pakistan envoy to desist from meeting separatists but he chose to ignore her suggestion. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam, however, said there was no question of replacing the envoy since “there has been no violation of any diplomatic protocol” by him. She insisted Kashmir was a “disputed territory” and not an internal matter of India. With the Pakistan Premier coming under siege at home and the Army reasserting its say over country’s ties with India, it is becoming difficult for New Delhi to deal with the neighbouring country. Conflicting signals have been emanating from Islamabad ever since the new government assumed office and there was virtually no possibility of resuming the dialogue. Not subservient to India: Pak Pakistan on Tuesday said it was ‘not subservient’ to New Delhi and was a ‘legitimate stakeholder’ in the Kashmir dispute. “The High Commissioner of Pakistan did not interfere in India’s internal affairs. Pakistan is a legitimate stakeholder in the J-K dispute,” said Foreign Office spokesperson. — PTI "India should not have done it. The ground that has been made to cancel the talks is not a genuine cause.... We have been visiting Pakistan embassy several times to hold talks. The decision is undemocratic" Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Hurriyat hardliner "They first agreed to talk to Pakistan, that also in Islamabad, notwithstanding all this background. The government was in sonorous slumber.... With the separatists challenging the government and the Pakistan High Commissioner cocking a dare at the government, what does the government do next?" Manish Tewari, Congress leader
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