Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on national security, has caused a major flutter that he said India had communicated a desire to open dialogue after a hiatus of more than six years. ” India has sent a message to Pakistan with “a desire for conversation” but refused to give details.”
There was no immediate confirmation from the Indian foreign ministry of the statement made by Yusuf. If talks happen, it will be the first after 2013 that officials of the two countries sit down across each other for talks. Previous attempts to get a dialogue process restarted ran aground after repeated terrorist attacks in India mainly in 2016. This was after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Pakistan in 2015, becoming the first to do so since 2004 in an attempt to recast ties between the neighbors who have had a fraught relationship. Moeed Yusuf dismissed India’s position that the changes in Jammu and Kashmir were “an internal matter.” Yusuf agreed that the two key issues on the negotiating table were Kashmir and terrorism. “I want to talk about both,” he said, adding that Pakistan “stands for peace and we want to move forward.”
Asked about Pakistan’s repeated refusal to act against terrorists targeting India from Pakistani soil and its failure to prosecute seven men accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Yusuf blamed New Delhi for “deliberately delaying sending evidence and witnesses” for the trial. Yusuf also accused India of being involved in supporting terrorism within Pakistan.
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