SRINAGAR -- Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed today expressed disappointment over the cancellation of NSA talks between India and Pakistan and hoped that "the break in talks would be temporary".
The Chief Minister had a veiled advice for Pakistan and separatists too in his reaction after Pakistan called off the talks late last night, saying "It is neither warranted nor desirable to insist upon all-inclusive participation, directly or indirectly, in each and every bilateral meeting, like that between the two NSAs."
He said he was disappointed over abrupt cancellation of bilateral meeting between National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan but hoped that break in talks would be "temporary and the thaw achieved at Ufa (Russia), where Prime Ministers of the two countries met and exhibited great camaraderie, will not be allowed to go waste."
Hoping that India and Pakistan will "re-engage soon in a meaningful dialogue" and steps taken by New Delhi to remove impediments in normalization of relations will be reciprocated by Islamabad, Sayeed said he wants to see both the countries "walk the bridge of trust together".
For a sensitive border state like Jammu and Kashmir, peace and stability on both, the internal and the external fronts, "are of critical significance to normalcy, stability and development", the Chief Minister said.
"From this perspective, last-minute cancellation of the NSA-level bilateral meeting between our country and Pakistan is a great disappointment. Escalation of firing along the Line of Control (LoC), coupled with incidents of terrorism, are matters of serious concern to us here, as much as they are in the rest of the country," he said.
'Deceptive Diplomacy'
Meanwhile Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today accused Kashmir-based separatists and Pakistan of scuttling the peace process, and said the cancellation of NSA-level talks by Pakistan has exposed its "deceptive diplomacy".
He said Pakistan should not have invited separatist leaders of Jammu and Kashmir when its National Security advisor (NSA) Sartaj Aziz was supposed to meet his counterpart in New Delhi today.
"This is a combined game of both the separatists and Pakistan as they never wanted peace to prevail in the state of Jammu and Kashmir," Singh said.
Claiming that the decision of Pakistan to call off the NSA-level talks was part of its "deceptive diplomacy", Singh said cancellation of the talks has exposed the deceptive diplomacy of Pakistan in front of the entire world.
"Pakistan wanted India to call off the talks and blame it on India in the international forum. This is the real face of Pakistan, calling off the talks has exposed their deceptive diplomacy," he said.
He said that India wanted to have some mechanism to tackle terrorism and that was the main understanding of the Ufa meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
"The mechanism to bring peace on the border was the main purpose of this talk. But, they never wanted it. There was no need to invite the Hurriyat and other separatist leaders," Singh said.
Speaking about the outstanding issues that exist between India and Pakistan, including the issue of Kashmir, Singh said that both the separatists and Pakistan were conspiring to ensure that peace never prevails in the state.
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