India calls off talks with Pakistan at UNGA

New Delhi - It was supposed to take place on sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month.

India cancelled on Friday a rare meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart scheduled to have taken place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, only a day after announcing it would take place.
India's Ministry of External Affairs blamed the "latest brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the recent release of a series of twenty postage stamps by Pakistan glorifying a terrorist and terrorism".
It added that the recent actions had revealed Pakistan's "evil agenda" and the "true face" of the country's new Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The statement did not specify which killings it was referring to, but earlier this week an Indian border guard in Jammu region along the Line of Control was killed and his body mutilated.
And on Friday three policemen were found dead after being abducted in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district. India has long accused Pakistan of arming militant groups in Kashmir.
"The decision to agree to Pakistan's proposal for a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries in New York later this month was in response to the spirit reflected in the letters from the new Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan," Friday's Indian statement said.
"The letter from the Prime Minister of Pakistan had spoken of... bringing a positive change and mutual desire for peace as also readiness to discuss terrorism," it added.
"Now, it is obvious that behind Pakistan's proposal for talks to make a fresh beginning, the evil agenda of Pakistan stands exposed and the true face of the new Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has been revealed to the world in his first few months in office," it said. "Any conversation with Pakistan in such an environment would be meaningless."
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told Pakistan's ARY TV channel that he was "surprised and disappointed".

• India
• Pakistan