[ARABNEWS] India’s representative to Pakistan said Monday his country was only prepared to discuss the part of Kashmir controlled by Islamabad in upcoming peace talks, presenting a potential stumbling block days after the dialogue was announced.Last time they had talks scheduled the Pak High Commissioner decided to hold some ostentatious meetings with Kashmir rebels. Notice the Paks never say anything about "self-determination" for their end of Kashmir.
High commissioner T.C.A. Raghavan made the remarks about the disputed territory during a lecture in the Pakistani capital, after a breakthrough visit by India’s foreign minister at which the resumption of ministerial talks was announced.
Color the talks "scuttled."
According to a joint statement, the two sides will talk about peace and security as well as territorial disputes including Kashmir. Each country occupies part of the territory but claims it in full.
... and they've fought four wars over it, each started by the Paks, each lost by the guys who started it...
Since independence from Britain in 1947 they have fought two wars over Kashmir.
Four.
Asked where the room for negotiation lay over the Himalayan territory, Raghavan said it was India which first petitioned the United Nations to intervene when the-then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was invaded by Pakistani forces in 1947.
That was War #1...
“The first application was moved by India and it was on the grounds that a part of the state, which had acceded to India, is now under the illegal occupation of the Pakistan army. So when you say what is it that India is going to discuss or what is it discussing, it is really, if you ask most Indians, and what is our position — it is the part of that state which is still under the control of Pakistan.”
In politix this is known as "pie in the face."
The remarks could create a diplomatic wrinkle for the two countries as they seek to go back to the negotiation table to undertake broad-spectrum talks for the first time since the election of prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif.
I thought they tried this before and the Paks intentionally hosed it.
Badar Alam, editor of Pakistan’s political Herald magazine, said: “I think it is a step back,” adding that Kashmir was viewed internationally as a disputed territory.
Both pieces of it are regarded as such...
He added that given the fragile state of the dialogue, officials on both sides needed to tread “very cautiously and very carefully” to avoid a backlash.
Yeah. Don't make the Paks mad...
New Delhi suspended all talks after gunmen attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008, killing 166 people. The attacks were later found to have been planned from Pakistan.
Came as a surprise, didn't it? And the attackers were tied to Lashkar e-Taiba, but, really, there wasn't enough proof to bring charges against anybody in Pakistain.
| That last was particularly startling as we watched events, as I recall India had not only the cell phone numbers of those giving orders, but recordings of the conversations in which they did so. |