Ahead of NSA-level talks, Pakistan asks India to stop blame game

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the first-ever NSA-level talks, Pakistan today asked India to end the blame game and come forward with a fresh mind for the dialogue.

Defence Minister Khwaja Asif said the "old blame game" has been started against Pakistan as movements of separatists were growing rapidly in India.

Speaking to media and workers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in his home town in Sialkot, Asif asked India to the end blame game and come forward with a fresh mind for peace talks, Dawn newspaper reported.

Asif said that Pakistan "wanted peace with its neighbours, including India" and New Delhi should show sincerity in peace talks and end the old tactics of levelling false allegations against Pakistan.

He said Pakistan was ready to take confidence building measures with India.

He said Pakistan was committed to making peace efforts at all levels and armed forces were playing their role in uprooting militancy, insurgency and terrorism from the country.

The talks between National Security Advisors of the two countries proposed to be held this month in the backdrop of simmering tensions following two terror attacks in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

India has claimed arresting a Pakistani for launching attack on Indian forces in Kashmir though Islamabad has denied that the attacks were perpetrated by terrorists who had infiltrated from its territory.

Earlier, the two countries had exchanged a war of words over a "spy" drone which Pakistan alleged was being used by India for aerial photography near the Line of Control (LoC), a claim dismissed by New Delhi.

India has proposed August 23-24 for the meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Sartaj Aziz in New Delhi though the dated have not been finalised yet.