Pakistan suspends talks with India, says no to NIA

Police personnel outside the IAF base in Pathankot

Pakistan on Thursday said the dialogue process with India had been suspended and there was no question of allowing an NIA team to visit Islamabad to probe the Pathankot terror attack.

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit also said that the arrest of an alleged Indian spy, Kulbushan Jadhav, proved Islamabad's allegations that New Delhi was causing unrest in Balochistan.

Asked at the Foreign Correspondents Club about a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries, Basit said: "There is no meeting scheduled for now. I think at present the peace process is suspended.

"India is not ready as yet," Basit said, but quickly added that "we can only resolve issues through dialogue".

This is the first official word from Pakistan about the latest breakdown in the now-on-now-off peace process with India. 

After a team of Pakistani officials visited Pathankot to probe Indian charges that Pakistani terrorists were to blame for the January 2 attack, New Delhi had expected Islamabad to allow a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team to visit that country to take the investigation forward.

Basit ruled out the possibility. 

"The investigation (into the Pathankot attack) is not about reciprocity," he said.

Earlier, reading out a prepared statement, Basit referred to the arrest of alleged Indian spy Jadhav in Balochistan last month and said that it "irrefutably corroborates what Pakistan has been saying all along". 

"We are aware of all those who seek to create unrest in Pakistan and destabilise the country. They are bound to fail."

He said Pakistan had arrested scores of terror operatives with "foreign linkages" over the past month. "The presence of such elements is quite disturbing, to say the least." 

He also spoke on Jammu and Kashmir, saying it was "the root cause of mutual distrust and other bilateral issues".

"And attempts to put it on backburner will be counter-productive," he added. "The resolution of (the) Jammu and Kashmir (dispute) should be fair and just."