Pakistan has said it will be impossible for it to continue the dialogue with India if New Delhi does not pay importance to the Kashmir issue. India must include the Kashmir issue in talks with Pakistan in order to take forward parleys between the two countries, foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.
“It will be impossible for Pakistan to continue the dialogue if India does not pay importance to the Kashmir issue,” Mr Qureshi told reporters at the airport here on Saturday after returning from a trip abroad.
His remarks came more than a week after his July 15 meeting with his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna in Islamabad during which sharp differences arose between the two sides on the timeframe and roadmap for future talks.
On the proposed Pakistan-Afghanistan transit trade agreement, he described it as a significant achievement, but ruled out any provision in the pact to allow India to send its goods to Afghanistan via Pakistan.
The foreign minister also dismissed assertions by US leaders and officials that the top Al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leadership, including Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, are present in Pakistan.
Describing such reports as pure rubbish, Mr Qureshi said: “Pakistan wants concrete evidence proving the whereabouts of either Osama bin Osama or Mullah Omar.”
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‘Anderson, did not meet Giani’
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
Contrary to suggestions that Bhopal gas tragedy accused Warren Anderson met the then President Giani Zail Singh before he left for the US, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has said that no such meeting had taken place.
Replying to an RTI application seeking to know if Mr Anderson, who was Union Carbide chief, met the then President during December 6-8, 1984, the secretariat said, “No”. Mr Singh had 11 appointments on December 6, 1984 which included a delegation of government of Japan’s economic division comprising 60 people, the reply to RTI application said. On the next day, when Mr Anderson came to Delhi from Bhopal after securing bail and went back to the US, the then President had nine appointments which did not include Mr Anderson.
The President’s secretariat could not trace any condolence message of Giani Zail Singh issued in the aftermath of the Bhopal tragedy. The leak of poisonous gas Methyl Isocyanate from Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3 had killed over 15,000 people in the worst industrial disaster of the country. According to some reports, Mr Anderson had allegedly met Zail Singh before leaving the country.