India’s foreign minister on Friday predicted that security restrictions across Kashmir would be eased in the “coming days,” but rejected Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call for talks over the divided Himalayan region.
In an interview with POLITICO in Brussels, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said he hasn’t had time to read Friday’s New York Times op-ed by Khan, which seeks the opening of a dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi, but argued the idea is a nonstarter while Pakistan “openly practices terrorism.”
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Khan argued that it is urgent to begin discussions while a “nuclear shadow” hovers over South Asia, but the Indian minister said there is no hope of negotiations until Pakistan reins in its financing and recruitment of militant groups. “Terrorism is not something that is being conducted in dark corners of Pakistan. It’s done in broad daylight,” he complained.
Jammu and Kashmir leaped back to the top of the international agenda as a flashpoint between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan earlier this month, when New Delhi stripped the state of its autonomous status, restricted communications and imposed curfews.
Since early August, leading international media have reported widespread arrests,supply problems at hospitals, demonstrators wounded by pellet shots and small businesses struggling to get by because of communications’ blackouts in Kashmir. Khan accused the Indian security services of shooting protesters dead.
Source: India sees Kashmir restrictions easing in ‘coming days’
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