Srinagar: National Security Advisor to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Moeed Yusuf has said that India has sent a message expressing desire for talks.
He insisted that Kashmiris must be a third party at these talks and made it clear that Pakistan is willing to discuss terror.
“We have got a message for a desire for conversation” Moeed Yusuf told veteran journalist Karan Thapar in an interview for The Wire. He, however, refused to divulge further details.
Yusuf insisted that Kashmiris must be a third party at these talks.
Yusuf repeatedly reiterated that Kashmiris would have to be a third party in talks along with two other conditions including rollback of the “military siege” in Kashmir and new domicile law.
He said that there are two issues Kashmir and terror and said that they wanted to talk about both. “Pakistan stands for peace and we want to move forward,” he added.
Replying to certain questions, Moeed further added that the constitutional changes of August 2019 in Jammu and Kashmir was “not an internal matter” of India, rather it was the “matter for the UN”.
The New Delhi had revoked J&K special status and downgraded the state into Union territory on August last year, pushing the region into several months of total clampdown and restrictions. Hundreds of people including three former chief ministers were arrested to prevent any protests against the move.
Yusuf was also questioned about Pakistan’s repeated refusal to take action against militants who target India from Pakistani soil and, in particular, the failure to prosecute the seven accused in the 2008 Mumbai killings. These men are now out on bail and either untraceable or reportedly kept in ISI safe houses.
In response to these issues, Yusuf said “Kashmiris hate Indians”. He said the constitutional changes of August 2019 are “not an internal matter”. He said they were “a matter for the UN”.
Speaking about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s silence on the Uighurs while making accusations of genocide in Kashmir, he said this was “a false equivalence”. He said the Uighurs were a “non-issue”. He said that he had personally studied the matter in detail and was hundred percent satisfied that the Uighurs were being treated properly by the Chinese government and that there was no problem.
Agencies

KR Desk