Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on national security issues has stated that India has expressed its willingness to engage in talks even as it set various conditions for a dialogue, including reversing various changes made in Jammu and Kashmir.
Moeed Yusuf, Khan’s special assistant on national security and strategic policy planning, said India sent a message to Pakistan with “a wish for conversation” but declined to elaborate.
Among the conditions set by Yusuf for a dialogue with India are the release of political prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir, making the people of Kashmir a party to the talks, ending restrictions in the region, repealing the domicile law allowing non-Kashmiris to settle in the region, and ending alleged human rights abuses.
He also said that the changes in Jammu and Kashmir “are not an internal matter” and are “a matter of the UN.”
Yusuf made the remarks in an interview with journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire news portal, the first by a Pakistani official since India removed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August 2019 and divided it into two union territories. .
Yusuf said the two sides “must sit down like adults” for the talks and said the two key issues are Kashmir and terror. “I want to talk about both,” he said, adding that Pakistan “stands for peace and we want to move forward.”
There was no immediate response from Indian officials to Yusuf’s comments.
It is extremely rare for Pakistani officials to speak on foreign policy issues, such as relations with India, without obtaining the go-ahead from the military establishment, which plays a key role in guiding ties with the United States and India. Yusuf is considered to be close to the security establishment.
Last month, Yusuf had created a stir after joining a virtual meeting of national security advisers from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) with a map that incorrectly depicted the borders of India and Pakistan. India’s NSA Ajit Doval walked out of the meeting in protest and the matter now went well for Russia, which hosted the meeting.
On the issue of Kulbhushan Jadhav, the former Indian Navy officer sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged involvement in espionage, Yusuf maintained that there was evidence linking him to subversive activities. On the India matter requesting that Jadhav be represented by an Indian lawyer or a lawyer for the queen to appeal against his death sentence, Yusuf said that there is no law that allows an Indian lawyer to defend a case in court. Pakistani.
He also refused to accept that Pakistan has denied India free and unconditional consular access to Jadhav.
When asked about Pakistan’s repeated refusal to act against terrorists attacking India from Pakistani soil and the failure to prosecute the seven men accused of participating in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Yusuf blamed India. By “deliberately delaying the dispatch of evidence and witnesses” for investigation can keep the problem alive and use it to run Pakistan down in front of the world community.
Speaking about Prime Minister Khan’s silence on the persecution of Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region while accusing India of “genocide” in Kashmir, Yusuf said it was “a false equivalence”. He said the Uyghurs were “not a problem” as he was 100% satisfied that China was treating them properly.
Yusuf also accused India of being involved in backing terrorism inside Pakistan, saying that the Indian embassy in Kabul had given $ 1 million to the Pakistani Taliban in 2019 to help the group merge with four other militant groups. However, he could not name the four groups.
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