ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf will not be holding talks with his India counterpart on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) event in Tajikistan later this week, state-run news agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan, said on Saturday.
Yusuf will leave for Tajikistan today to participate in a meeting of national security advisers of the SCO’s member states in the capital city, Dushanbe, from June 22-23, his office said on Saturday.
During the visit, Yusuf is expected to meet the NSAs of Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China, but not India’s Ajit Doval.
Doval had walked out of the virtual session of the SCO meeting last year after Yusuf reportedly projected a map that inaccurately depicted the two countries’ borders.
The two nuclear-armed neighbors both control parts of Kashmir but claim it in full.
In August 2019, India withdrew India-ruled Kashmir’s autonomy to tighten its grip over the territory, sparking outrage in Pakistan. The move also resulted in the downgrading of diplomatic ties and the suspension of bilateral trade between the two nations.
Since then, Pakistan has maintained that it would be ready for talks with India only if it restored Kashmir’s original status.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi underlined that “durable peace in South Asia can only be achieved by peacefully resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute” as per the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions and the “wishes of the Kashmiri people.”
Kashmir has been a flashpoint since India and Pakistan gained independence from British rule in 1947, with both countries fighting two wars over the region. Pakistan accuses India of rights violations in Kashmir, and India says Pakistan supports militants in its part of the region. Both deny the charges.
Established in 2001, the SCO is an intergovernmental organization comprising China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Pakistani NSA to attend SCO conference, no planned meeting with Indian counterpart
https://arab.news/6v2by
Pakistani NSA to attend SCO conference, no planned meeting with Indian counterpart
- Both officials will be participating in a meeting of national security advisers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s member states in Dushanbe this week
- Islamabad has maintained it will hold dialogue with New Delhi only if it restored Kashmir’s original status
Officer killed as police repulse militant attack in Pakistan's northwest
- The militants attacked a police station in Bajaur district that borders Afghanistan
- Police have launched an operation to hunt down the attackers, a spokesman says
PESHAWAR: A police officer was killed as law enforcers repulsed a militant attack on a police station in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, an official said on Sunday.
A group of militants attacked the police station in Wara Mamund tehsil of KP's Bajaur district in wee hours of Sunday, according to district police spokesman Muhammad Israr.
“The police fought for more than 40 minutes before the attack was foiled,” he told Arab News. “Additional SHO (station house officer) Gul Mahmood Din was killed, whereas other cops remained safe.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have frequently carried out attacks against security forces and police in the region that borders Afghanistan.
Israr said police have launched a large-scale operation to hunt down the attackers.
Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP in recent years.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi deny this.
