Separatist Mirwaiz Umer Farooq
India is opposed to any meeting, sources said, between Kashmiri separatists and Pakistan's National Security Advisor or NSA Sartaz Aziz, who is scheduled to arrive in Delhi to hold talks on terror with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Sunday.
Three separatists have been invited to meet Mr Aziz at a reception hosted by the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi on the same day, and Pakistan government sources told NDTV today that the plan is still on.
They also said they have received no message from New Delhi linking the fate of the talks between the NSAs to Mr Aziz's meeting with the separatists.
"Meeting with Kashmiri leaders is common practice before consultations and talks between the two countries," said Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah in Islamabad.
This morning, the three separatists invited to meet Mr Aziz - Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq - were placed under house arrest in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, and were released within two hours. Government sources said the action was meant to signal India's stand that the separatists "cannot be a third party to talks."
They also said that it put the ball in Pakistan's court.
"It is unfortunate we are being used as an excuse to get out of talks. This is only a reception, why so much hue and cry?" separatist Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said to NDTV.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, "I have never seen an Indo-Pak dialogue where both sides are so keen to sabotage it. India & Pak competing to give reasons to call off talks."
Tanwir Sadiq of the ruling People's Democratic Party, said, "We have always advocated a dialogue between the Hurriyat, India and Pakistan." The PDP rules Jammu and Kashmir in partnership with the BJP, which is in power at the Centre.
The Centre had in July last year called off talks after Pakistan consulted Kashmiri separatists before a meeting of foreign secretaries.