Nothing unusual: Pakistan envoy defends Eid invite to Kashmiri separatists

The Pakistan high commission has invited Kashmiri separatist leaders to its mission on July 21 to celebrate Eid Milan at the end of holy month of Ramzan.

Pakistan high commission sources said it has been an usual practice to invite the Kashmiri separatist leaders on such occasions.

Earlier, the high commission had scheduled the dinner for July 4 but later it was postponed to July 21.

While Pakistani officials maintain that it was postponed due to some deaths in Karachi, the move was seen by many as an attempt to avoid any bitterness ahead of talks between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Russian city of Ufa.

In August last year, India had called off talks between foreign secretaries of the two countries, strongly objecting to consultations Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit had with the Kashmiri separatist leaders.

Modi and Sharif held a bilateral meeting three days ago on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Russian city of Ufa in which they decided to revive the stalled dialogue process and quicken the Mumbai attack case trial.

However, in a turnaround, Pakistan today asked for “more evidence and information” from India on the Mumbai attack case and asserted that talks cannot take place without Kashmir being on the agenda.