ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday accused India of evading dialogue on different pretexts and said that the situation in held Kashmir called for immediate talks on the dispute.

Speaking at the weekly media briefing, FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria recalled that India despite its commitments in the past to resolve outstanding bilateral issues through negotiations hid “behind excuses not to hold the dialogue”.

His comments came after Indian reply to Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry’s invitation for dialogue on the Kashmir dispute on Aug 29-30 had been received at the foreign ministry.

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar in his response refused to visit Pakistan for discussing the Kashmir dispute and said that he can, however, come for discussing ‘cross-border terrorism’.

Mr Jaishankar, as opposed to previous insistence on discussing terrorism affecting India, in his latest letter, according to Indian media, called for talks on terrorism allegedly emanating from Pakistani soil and affecting other countries in the region.

A shift in Indian strategy for dealing with Pakistan has been visible since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in response to Islamabad’s efforts to highlight the uprising in held Kashmir, accused Pakistan of suppressing rights of people of Balochistan, Gilgit and Azad Kashmir. Now Delhi wants terrorism in the region to be brought on to the bilateral talks’ agenda.

The FO spokesman recalled that Pakistan, despite Indian intransigence, still considered dialogue as the best option for resolution of disputes.

“We, as a responsible country, want to resolve all issues peacefully through a meaningful, sustainable and result-oriented dialogue,” he maintained.

Pointing to the aggravating situation in held Kashmir where at least 80 people have been killed and over 7,000 have been injured with 500 suffering eye injuries due to the use of pellet guns by Indian security forces, Mr Zakaria said: “We firmly believe that the recent grave situation in IOK [India-Occupied Kashmir] calls for an immediate dialogue.”

He said India through its “clumsy attempts” wanted to divert world attention from a purely indigenous uprising in the Valley.

“The international community must see through these desperate attempts by India to externalise a genuine, home-grown, indigenous uprising against the repression unleashed by Indian occupation forces in IOK,” he added.

India’s stiffening attitude towards Pakistan, because of which it had also decided against sending its finance minister to Islamabad to attend the ongoing Saarc meeting, had raised doubts about Indian participation in the summit planned for November later this year.

Recalling the challenges faced by the region, Mr Zakaria stressed the need for the countries in the neighbourhood to work together.

“We are expecting full participation of Saarc countries as the dates of the summit were fixed in close consultations with all Saarc members in Nepal last year,” he said, adding Pakistan looked forward to a productive Saarc summit.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2016