Ending the suspense, Pakistan on Saturday called off the Indo-Pak NSA-level talks, hours after India made it clear that discussions on Kashmir and a meeting with separatists will not be acceptable.
Pakistan's announcement brought to an end the battle of attrition as to who would blink first. That the talks was a non-starter was evident in the last two days in view of the acrimonious exchanges between the two sides but the last straw appeared to be External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's virtual ultimatum to Pakistan to give a clear commitment by midnight that it would not go ahead with meeting the separatists.
What became a red rag for New Delhi was the invitation by the Pakistan High Commission to Hurriyat leaders to meet Aziz ahead of the first-ever NSA-level talks, which was agreed upon in Ufa in Russia in July during the meeting between the two prime ministers--Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif.
India was also upset over Pakistan including Kashmir as part of the agenda for the NSA talks that was mainly scheduled to discuss terror.
Latest Updates: