 "India-Pakistan peace talks stand suspended: Pak envoy Basit")
In comments that left New Delhi red-faced, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit on Thursday said the bilateral peace process between the two neighbours stood suspended. He also indicated that an Indian probe team was unlikely to be allowed to visit Pakistan to investigate the Pathankot terrorist strike of January 2.
However, there was damage control by Thursday late evening both in New Delhi and Islamabad. India’s external affairs ministry reminded Islamabad that the Pakistani joint investigation team was allowed in India on the basis of reciprocity. External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup also pointed to the statement by the Pakistani foreign ministry in Islamabad. The Pakistani foreign ministry had said that modalities for the talks between foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan were being worked out.
However, it was Basit’s interaction with media persons in New Delhi that started the confusion. “I think at present the peace process between India and Pakistan is "suspended," Basit said. He said the visit of the Indian probe team wasn’t about reciprocity. A Pakistan ioint investigation team (JIT) was in India recently. New Delhi had Islamabad to receive a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India. "It is very difficult for me to say. But at this stage...the whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident," Basit said.
When asked for its reaction, South Block reacted cautiously. Swarup said the external affairs ministry would like to clarify that on March 26, before the visit of the JIT, the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had formally conveyed to the Pakistan foreign ministry that the terms of reference "broadly agreed to the provision that these would be on the basis of reciprocity and followed in accordance with extant legal provisions.” “Subsequently, the JIT visited from March 27 to April 1,” he said.
Swarup acknowledged the Pakistan High Commissioner’s comment that he thought the peace process was suspended. “The external affairs ministry notes that in response to a question at his press conference on Thursday evening, the spokesman of the Pakistan foreign ministry said, ‘Your question implies whether the foreign-secretary-level talks will take place or not. I have stated this many times that both countries are in contact with each other and it has been re-iterated from both sides that modalities are being worked out. I will again state that negotiations are the best means to resolve the issues. I have read the statement of the Indian foreign secretary you are referring to and in that also there was indication that the talks would take place’.”
The JIT from Pakistan had visited India last month and went around the strategic air-force airbase in Pathankot that was attacked by Pakistani terrorists on the intervening night of January 1 and 2, leaving seven securitymen dead. Four Pakistani terrorists were also killed in the gunbattle.
The issue is likely to be an embarrassment for the government with both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party criticising its Pakistan policy. The peace talks were revived in October when National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met his Pakistan counterpart, along with the respective foreign secretatries of the two countries, in Bangkok in October. A few days later, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj travelled to Islamabad for talks with her Pakistan counterpart Sartaj Aziz. The two neighbours had then decided to revive the 'comprehensive bilateral dialogue', agreeing to discuss all issues, including Kashmir and terrorism.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lahore to meet Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif in end-December. A week later, the Pathankot airbase faced a terror attack.
Not just the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been extremely critical of the government allowing the Pakistan JIT to visit Pathankot.
