New Delhi demands \u201cconducive atmosphere free of terror\u201d for talks with Islamabad
\n Islamabad
\nIn response to Islamabad\u2019s desire to normalise bilateral ties with its nuclear-armed neighbouring country, India has yet again set a condition before resuming talks with Pakistan.
\n\u201cIndia reiterated its position on relations with Pakistan and said that a \u2018conducive atmosphere free of terror\u2019 is needed for talks,\u201d state-run ANI quoted the Indian foreign ministry\u2019s spokesperson as saying on Thursday.
\nReplying to a question during a press briefing Arindam Bagchi, the Indian foreign ministry\u2019s spokesperson, said: \u201cWe have already said that we have always wanted normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan.\u201d He added, \u201cBut there should be a conducive atmosphere which does not have terror, hostility or violence. That remains our position.\u201d
\nThe comments came four days after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during an interview with Al Arabiya news channel, asked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to hold \u201cserious and sincere talks\u201d \u2014 to resolve the burning issues with New Delhi, including Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
\n\u201cMy message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that let us sit down [at] the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning issues like Kashmir,\u201d the premier said.
\nPM Shehbaz said that flagrant human rights violations were taking place day in and day out in IIOJK, adding that the neighbouring country had usurped any semblance of autonomy given to Kashmiris according to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The autonomy was revoked in August 2019.
\nThe premier also said that the minorities in India \u201care being persecuted\u201d. \u201cThis must stop so that message can go around the globe that India is ready to have talks.\u201d
\nPM Shehbaz said Pakistan and India \u201care neighbours and have to live with each other\u201d.
\nThe ties between the two nuclear-armed nations halted in 2019 after the Modi administration revoked the special status of IIOJK and has since been continuing its unabated terrorism in the Himalayan valley.<\/p>\n
Islamabad and New Delhi in November 2003 agreed to a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary, but the truce was breached repeatedly after Modi came into power in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi demands \u201cconducive atmosphere free of terror\u201d for talks with Islamabad Islamabad In response to Islamabad\u2019s desire to normalise bilateral ties with its nuclear-armed neighbouring country, India has yet again set a condition before resuming talks with Pakistan. \u201cIndia reiterated its position on relations with Pakistan and said that a \u2018conducive atmosphere free of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,5822],"class_list":{"0":"post-308468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-narendra-modi","9":"tag-pm-shehbaz-sharif"},"yoast_head":"\n