'Perfect Coordination:' Omar Abdullah's Jibe on Separatists' Arrest, Release

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday ridiculed the government for placing three Kashmiri separatists under house arrest this morning and releasing them soon after, ahead of National Security Advisor-level talks between India and Pakistan.

"Why? No absence of coordination, centre says arrest so arrested, centre says release, so released. Perfect coordination", Mr Abdullah said on Twitter.
 
The separatists - Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq - were released less than two hours after they were placed under house arrest.

The separatists are to meet with Pakistan's NSA Sartaj Aziz at a dinner hosted by the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi on Sunday evening.  

Mr Aziz, who will arrive in India on Sunday, will hold talks on terror with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval the same day.

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The invite to separatists is seen as a move designed to provoke India, but the government has said it will not be baited into cancelling the talks, which will see the resumption of dialogue between the two countries after a year.

India had called off talks after Pakistan consulted Kashmiri separatists before a meeting of Foreign Secretaries in July, last year. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif met in Russia and agreed to resume dialogue

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Mr Abdullah also tweeted today, "I've 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."