Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit meets separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Delhi

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Mar 09, 2015: At a time when secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan have just resumed, Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit on Monday met separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in a redux of last year’s event that led to bad blood between the two neighbouring countries.

The Pakistan envoy’s meeting with the separatist leader yet again threatens to sabotage the semblance of normalcy that was returning between the two countries with Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s recent visit to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Jaishankar’s visit — a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s SAARC Yatra initiative — came long after Indo-Pak talks were derailed after Basit had met Kashmiri separatist leaders in August last year.

The Modi government had then called off the secretary-level talks scheduled between the two countries as a mark of protest over Pakistan envoy’s gesture and has since maintained that its neighbour either talks to India or separatists.

Jaishankar, during his Pakistan visit, had discussed bilateral relations and raised the issue of ceasefire violations in Kashmir.


Courtesy: Zeenews