Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav has said that he favours dialogue with Pakistan, and believes India should not pay too much attention to former Pakistan diplomat Shahryar Khan's flip-flop statement on Dawood Ibrahim.
"There is no meaning to these statements. ...It is true that there have been wars between two periods of talks between the two countries . Both talks and wars keep going on between us, historically"
Sharad Yadav suggested that India, Bangladesh and Pakistan should continue 'talking' and aim at forming an association. "Until that happens, we should keep talking because only through peaces a solution on these matters can be reached. If tomorrow, there is no trust between the two countries both will be destroyed," JD (U) chief Sharad Yadav said.
Saying that it is in the national interest of India to be on talking terms with its neighbours, Yadav insisted that India can have no control over the threats that Hafiz Saeed issues against it.
"Saeed issues nonsensical statements everyday. Till the Pakistani government doesn't shut him up, he will continue," Yadav said.
Yadav also said that the country should not be alarmed at isolated instances of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) as India has not had a natural division with its neighbours.
Sharad Yadav pointed out that ceasefire violations are usual when the border is so large . He said it kept happening with China and Bangladesh, as well. "This division (between Pakistan, Bangladesh and India) is not natural or usual; it is not like any other division in the world , and it has been born out of partition and migration," Yadav added.
According to reports, Shahryar Khan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's special envoy for improving relations with India, said on Friday that Dawood was in Pakistan but has been "chased out" and could be in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
While speaking to reporters at a pre-launch event for his book "Cricket Cauldron: The Turbulent Politics of Sport in Pakistan" in London, Shahryar Khan said: "Dawood (Ibrahim) was in Pakistan, but I believe he was chased out of Pakistan. If he is in Pakistan, he should be hounded and arrested. We cannot allow such gangsters to operate from the country," said Khan. The former diplomat added that if Dawood was still in Pakistan he would have been arrested by now.
However, Khan later did a U-turn on his statement when he told an Indian television channel that he had never known where Dawood lived and his earlier statement was just reflecting what the Pakistani media has been reporting in the past.
Meanwhile, Pakistan once again violated the ceasefire in Poonch District of Jammu and Kashmir late on Friday night.
Relations between the two countries have been extremely tense after six Indian soldiers were ambushed on August 6 along the LoC in Poonch District.
