New Delhi: India has again rejected Pakistan's latest invitation for talks on Kashmir, saying it is willing to discuss cross-border terrorism which is its "core concern".
In his reply to his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry's fresh invitation of August 19 to visit Islamabad by the end of this month to discuss Kashmir dispute, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said he was willing to discuss terrorism emanating from Pakistan's territory.
Jaishankar's letter - which according to sources called for earliest possible vacation of Islamabad's illegal occupation of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir - was handed over by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale to Chaudhry on Wednesday
Chaudhry's August 19 letter, second in the last ten days, invited Jaishankar to visit "Islamabad by the end of this month to discuss the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, with a view to finding a fair and just solution, as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions and aspirations" of the people of the state. He had first written to Jaishankar on August 15 for talks on Kashmir.
Pakistan in its letter called for "putting an immediate end to the human rights violations against the innocent people" of Jammu and Kashmir and for providing medical facilities to the injured, "including the permission for doctors and paramedics to travel."
The to-and-fro comes amid strain in bilateral ties between the two nations over the continuing unrest in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani last month.
Wani was hailed as a martyr by Pakistan, which also tried to internationalise the Kashmir issue with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the country's foreign office writing to a host of countries besides the United Nations, while India has been maintaining that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the Valley is the root cause of the turbulence.
(With inputs from PTI)
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