News Analysis: Kashmir issue spoils India, Pakistan security talks

The contentious issue of Kashmir between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan seems to have spoiled the much anticipated security talks between them.

The discussions scheduled on Sunday between their security advisers have suffered a major dent well before their initiation and placed both sides on sticky ground.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad have blamed each other of deviating from the set "policy" for the meeting, in an indication that fruitful talks may not be held. The acrimony started after Pakistan's high commission in New Delhi extended invitations to separatists in Indian-controlled Kashmir for talks with its prime minister's advisor on national security and foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, a move strongly opposed by India.

"India advised Pakistan yesterday that it would not be appropriate for Sartaj Aziz to meet with Hurriyat (freedom) representatives during his visit to India as it would not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Ufa understanding to jointly work to combat terrorism," Vikas Swarup, the spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Aziz is scheduled to visit New Delhi on Sunday for talks with India's national security advisor Ajit Doval. Pakistan however refutes India's reservations and described them as "frivolous."

"For the NSA (national security advisors) talks in Delhi, Pakistan had proposed a comprehensive agenda, consistent with the decisions taken by the two prime ministers in Ufa, which included discussions on all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, as well as terrorism related matters, and other issues such as religious tourism, release of fishermen and peace and tranquillity along the Line of Control (LoC). However, regrettably, the Indian side's desire to restrict the agenda to terrorism related issues only, amounts to a negation of the decisions taken by the two prime ministers," a statement issued by Pakistan's foreign office said on Friday.

"This is the second time that India has chosen to go back on a decision mutually agreed upon between the two prime ministers, to engage in a comprehensive dialogue, by coming up with frivolous pretexts," it said.

With the two sides indulging in a blame game over the meeting of their senior officials, analysts say the outcome is predictable.

"In mind of their adamant positions, the talks won't yield anything now," Naseer Ahmad, a Srinagar based political analyst said.

"If you recall past events this is not something new in their relations, which have often been fraught with disagreements. Initially the engagements would come to an end abruptly but now the spoilers creep in right at the beginning."

Of late India has started projecting Pakistan's proximity to the region's separatists as a major hindrance in resolving issues with Pakistan, though the practice has been going on for quite a long time.

Last year New Delhi called off foreign secretary-level talks with Islamabad citing reservations over Pakistan's engagement with Kashmiri separatists ahead of the talks.

The security advisors' meeting was agreed upon by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif last month during their meeting in the Russian city of Ufa.

On Thursday, Indian authorities briefly detained key separatist leaders in a bid to prevent separatists from traveling to New Delhi to meet Aziz. However, curbs were lifted immediately.

As the talks face a bleak future, the separatist leaders have announced they would travel to New Delhi to meet Aziz.

Troops of the two countries are targeting each other's positions and civilian areas along the LoC in restive Kashmir. Both sides have suffered causalities in the skirmishes.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.

Separatists in the region seek to end New Delhi's rule in India and have been demanding the withdrawal of troops and the scrapping of their special powers, and have even made it a pre-condition for entering into formal talks with New Delhi. Endi