Pakistan says ‘onus on India’ to restart dialogue
Pakistan’s overseas minister has thrown down the gauntlet to India to restart direct dialogue between the 2 nations, saying the “onus lies on [them]” to reverse steps within the disputed area of Kashmir and finish alleged rights abuses there earlier than the 2 nations can come to the desk.
In an interview with aljazeera, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi accused the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of adopting “aggressive rhetoric” and “acting irresponsibly”.
“Who vitiated the climate? Obviously the Indians. Now if things have to improve, the onus lies on India,” he said, referring to steps taken by Modi’s government to revoke a special constitutional status for Indian-administered Kashmir in August 2019 and a subsequent security crackdown in the region, which lasted several months.
Under last year’s historic deal, all US troops are due to leave Afghanistan by April, but the Pentagon recently hinted it could delay that if violence does not abate.
“We are concerned because we feel violence can vitiate the climate,” Qureshi added.
“Pakistan has done a lot, we have really bent backwards to create an environment to facilitate the peace process,” he said, while blaming “spoilers” for the violence, identifying them as internal Afghan players “who have benefited from the war economy” and alleging that “there are elements from outside who do not share our vision, which is a peaceful, stable, prosperous Afghanistan.”
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars in full since gaining independence from the British over Kashmir in 1947, and the Himalayan territory remains at the heart of ongoing tensions between their nuclear-armed neighbors.
Bilateral relations between the two rivals came to a standstill around September 2016 after India said its military had carried out a “surgical strike” on Pakistani territory. Islamabad denied the claim, but admitted that two Pakistani soldiers were killed in the attack.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tried to resume the dialogue after winning the July 2018 election.
Qureshi said there are currently “no formal or informal parleys” between the two countries, including meetings between former officials commonly referred to as “Track II dialogues”.
In February 2019, India launched an air strike on Pakistani territory following an attack on Indian security forces in Pulwama, Kashmir, killing more than 40 people.
India blamed Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistan-based armed group, for the attack, saying its air strikes targeted a “training camp” in the town of Balakot on its northwestern border.
The air strikes brought the two countries to the brink of yet another war. In the ensuing stalemate, Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured an Indian Air Force pilot who was released by Islamabad two days later as a “gesture of goodwill”.
