SRINAGAR: Coinciding with the hardening of its stance on future talks with India, Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has dished out invitations to Kashmiri leaders for Eid Milan on July 21
The invitation to Kashmiri separatists for an Iftar dinner on July 4 was withdrawn by the high commission in the light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif meeting in the Russian city of Ufa.
Last year, India cancelled talks between the Foreign Secretaries of both countries after the Pakistani envoy insisted on hosting the separatist leaders before the dialogue.
Pertinently, the leaders including Hurriyat-G chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Hurriyat-M chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah among others were also invited by the Pak High Commission for July 4 Iftaar party which was cancelled at the eleventh hour.
Their meeting has been seen as a breakthrough in the stop-start India-Pakistan talks. If the invitation by the Pakistani high commission is correct, it could again reflect on the bilateral relations.
The Pakistan high commission had told the Hurriyat on June 25 that the Iftar had been postponed as there had been deaths in Karachi.
Hurriyat sources said on Sunday that the Pakistan envoy had extended the invitation to both the factions of the Hurriyat and members of the Kashmir Bar Association, civil society and some Kashmiri journalists.
The last time Kashmir separatists visited the Pakistan high commission was in August 2014 for a meeting with the Pakistan ambassador to India ahead of the proposed foreign secretary level talks, which enraged Indian authorities and led to the breakdown of the secretary-level talks.
Envoy Defends Eid Invite
NEW DELHI: Kashmiri separatists have been invited to celebrate Eid with the Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit early next week.
Mr Basit told NDTV today, “There’s nothing unusual about our invite to Hurriyat leaders. The hype being created by some is unfortunate, to put it mildly. Pakistan will continue extending its full moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their legitimate struggle for self-determination.”
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