Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin conveyed Government of India's decision following Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit's meeting with separatist Kashmiri leader Shabir Shah in the capital on Monday for consultations before the Foreign Secretary-level talks.
"Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh's visit to Islamabad for talks on August 25 stands cancelled," he said, adding that the talks have been called off as ‘no useful purpose will be served' by her visit.
In its reaction, the Pakistan Foreign Office said it has been informed about India's decision to call off the talks ‘taking exception' to its High Commissioner in New Delhi holding meetings with Kashmiri leaders but noted that it is a ‘long standing practice' ahead of bilateral talks to hold meetings with Kashmiri leaders in order to ‘facilitate meaningful discussions on the issue of Kashmir'.
Other Kashmiri separatist leaders asserted they would go on to meet the Pakistani High Commissioner on Tuesday and criticized the Government of India for calling off the talks over the invitation to them.
Announcing the decision in a strong statement, Akbaruddin said that the invitation to ‘so-called leaders of the Hurriyat does indeed raise questions about Pakistan's sincerity, and shows that its negative approaches and attempts to interfere in India's internal affairs continue unabated'.
Pakistan should resolve outstanding issues through peaceful bilateral dialogue within the framework and principles of the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration, he added.
Akbaruddin noted that that the Islambad's ‘negative approach' had come at a time when serious initiatives were being undertaken by the Narendra Modi government to move bilateral ties forward, including towards the resumption of a regular dialogue process.
"Indian Foreign Secretary conveyed to the Pakistan High Commissioner today, in clear and unambiguous terms, that Pakistan's continued efforts to interfere in India's internal affairs were unacceptable. It was underlined that the High Commissioner's meetings with these so called leaders of the Hurriyat undermines the constructive diplomatic engagement initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May on his very first day in office," he said.
Akbaruddin said that Sujatha Singh called Abdul Basit before his meeting with Shah and explained to him that ‘this part of interference in India's internal affairs was totally unacceptable'.
"Yet the Pakistan high commissioner proceeded and had meeting. Therefore, it led us with no choice but to decide not have engagement when the atmosphere was vitiated," he said.
The move to cancel the talks also came amid concern in the government over ceasefire violations by Pakistan over the past few days.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who was in Amritsar on Monday, justified the cancellation and termed the ceasefire violations as ‘deliberate'.
"With these kind of provocations like the ceasefire violations and more seriously, invitation to separatists to meet the high commissioner, it's for Pakistan to decide what kind of relationship it wants with India," he said.
The cancellation of talks marked another dramatic turn in the tumultuous relationship between the two countries which had begun to look up following Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attending Modi's path taking ceremony in May.
Congress seeks explanation from govt
Meanwhile, the Congress said the BJP-led NDA government needs to explain why it decided to have talks with Pakistan in the first place.
Party leader Anand Sharma said that Pakistan had not responded adequately to the issues raised by the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and that was why the composite dialogue process between the two countries was not restored.
"Why India went to the negotiating table? The Modi government is sending confused signals," he said.
In Srinagar, senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who respectively head the hardliner and moderate factions of the Hurriyat, said they will visit New Delhi on Tuesday to meet the High Commissioner.
Jammu and Kashmir's ruling National Conference (NC), meanwhile, termed the decision to call off the talks ‘strange' while the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called it ‘a negative development'.
