NEW DELHI: India Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday chaired a high-level meeting in the Indian capital over Pakistan’s stand on the bilateral peace process and the ongoing probe into the terror attack on the Pathankot air base in January this year, sources said.
“The meeting was attended by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Intelligence Bureau Syed Asif Ibrahim and other top Indian officials, which discussed Pakistan’s stubborn stand not to allow Indian investigators to travel to the country to probe the attack,” the Indian media quoted sources as having said. Earlier, Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit had said that the bilateral peace process with India stood suspended and made it clear that sleuths of this country’s anti-terror agency would not to be allowed to visit his country to probe the Pathankot attack. Reacting to Basit’s remarks, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “I have stated this many times that both countries are in contact with each other and it has been reiterated from both sides that modalities are being worked out.” “I will again state that negotiations are the best means to resolve the issues,” the spokesperson said, pointing to the bilateral peace process. “We have seen comments by the Pakistani high commissioner on the visit of the JIT team to investigate the terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase that have reference to reciprocity,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
