Pakistan says it won't give up consultations with Kashmiri separatists

United Nations, Oct 15: Pakistan has declared that it won't give up consulting Kashmiri separatists in order to hold talks with India -- a condition that India promptly rejected at the General Assembly here on Wednesday. Asserting that consultations with separatists is essential for peacefully solving the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan's Permanent Representative Maleeha Lodhi said, "Calling for the termination of these consultations, as a precondition for dialogue is unacceptable as well as counterproductive." Voicing New Delhi's rejection of the Pakistani condition, Indian diplomat Abhishek Singh called it an interference in India's internal affairs. Lodhi also reiterated Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's four-point peace initiative he announced here last month and said Islamabad "stands ready to engage in a dialogue on all outstanding issues", even though there was no positive response from India. Responding to it on the floor of the General Assembly, Singh, a first secretary in India's UN Mission, dismissed the offer, quoting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's blunt response, "We do not need four points, we need just one -- give up terrorism and let us sit down and talk." Singh recalled that Swaraj had said, "India remains open to dialogue. But talks and terror cannot go together." She had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nawaz had agreed to this at their July meeting during Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Ufa, Russia. "Let us hold talks at the level of NSAs (National Security Advisers) on all issues connected to terrorism and an early meeting of our directors general of military operations to address the situation on the border," she had said. "If the response is serious and credible, India is prepared to address all outstanding issues through a bilateral dialogue."