• ‘If Kashmir is not an issue why India has stationed 7 lakhs troops in the region’
• ‘India should hold referendum in Kashmir to let people decide their fate’
• ‘India acting like regional superpower, wants talks on its own terms’
• ‘Nuclear power Pak knows how to defend itself’
Pakistan Prime Minister’s adviser of National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz Monday asserted that there could be no talks with India without Kashmir on the agenda.“There is no difference between the Pakistan Army and the political leadership. As far as Kashmir is concerned not only the political leadership, the whole nation is united that we cannot talk to India without Kashmir,” Aziz told CNN-IBN.
When asked whether he would propose a meeting between NSA advisers of the two countries at the UN General Assembly session in New York, he said, “We are not going to propose that, but if India proposes then we’ll see.”
Aziz said he will exchange the dossiers of Indian spy agency RAW’s involvement with Pakistan, even if he doesn’t get a chance for a meeting with Ajit Dowal, the Indian national security adviser.
He denied Pakistan had been provided any evidence on the presence of Dawood Ibrahim in the country, or the country’s involvement in Gurdaspur attacks.
“What co-operation? I mean they, let them provide. On Gurdaspur nothing has been provided. If they provide – we will take action,” he said. “India is always using the media to target and point fingers at Pakistan without providing anything. In my two years, I have not seen any evidence being provided on these two issues.”
Meanwhile, Aziz accused India of acting like a regional superpower, saying it was imposing its agenda in violation of Ufa agreement that scuttled the NSA-level talks.
He said Pakistan was not responsible for the cancellation of the first-ever NSA-level talks.
Aziz said that since taking over the government last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi considers India as regional power, forgetting that Pakistan is “nuclear power”.
“Modi’s India acts as if they are a regional superpower, but we are also a nuclear-armed country and we know how to defend ourselves,” Aziz was quoted as saying by the Dawn.
He said India wants talks on normalisation on its own terms by having discussion only on matters relating to trade and connectivity.
He said if Kashmir is not an issue then “why India has stationed 700,000 troops in Kashmir”.
Aziz said the entire international community believes that Kashmir is a problem between the two countries which should be resolved.
“India should realise after the current episode that their tactics are not working,” he said and asked India to hold a referendum in Kashmir to let people decide their fate.
Aziz said that Pakistan would not run from talks on terrorism as Pakistan as “we also have evidence of RAW’s involvement in fuelling terrorism in Pakistan.”
The NSA-talks were called off at last minute due to difference over Aziz’s planned meeting with separatist leaders and his intention to discuss Kashmir with counterpart.
