india

Updated: Jun 21, 2019 00:03 IST

Reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a specific proposal for talks in a letter to his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan, are “fake news” and any possible engagement is linked to Islamabad creating an environment free of terror and violence, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday.

Raveesh Kumar, the ministry’s spokesperson, made the remarks in response to reports in a section of the Pakistani media that cited a source in the Pakistani Foreign Office as saying Modi and external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, had “responded positively” to Islamabad’s offer of talks in letters sent to their Pakistani counterparts.

“There are repeated efforts by Pakistan to peddle fake news and I request that you check the truth with us before you spread such news,” Kumar told a regular news briefing.

Modi and Jaishankar had responded to congratulatory messages from their Pakistani counterparts after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the elections in line with “established diplomatic practice”, he said. In their messages, they said India wants normal and cooperative ties with all neighbours including Pakistan.

“For this, it is important to build an environment of trust, free of terror, violence, and hostility,” Modi had said in his message to Khan on June 12. Jaishankar, in his message to Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, emphasised on an “atmosphere free from the shadow of terror and violence”.

Kumar said India had not changed its position and Pakistani reports about proposals for talks reflected a “mentality of distorting things”.

“There is no change in our position — we have made it clear time and again that Pakistan has to take action which is verifiable and irreversible,” he said, adding India has to be convinced that such measures are “not the temporary action we have seen several times in the past”.

Following the February 14 suicide attack in Pulwama that killed 40 troopers and pressure from the Financial Action Task Force to crack down on terror financing, Pakistan has taken over some facilities operated by terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and detained some operatives.

Indian officials have said Pakistan has taken similar actions in the past, only to roll them back once pressure from the world community eased. Modi and Khan did not hold a formal meeting when they came face-to-face for the first time on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan earlier this month. Their interaction was limited to the exchange of pleasantries.

In his message congratulating Modi on his re-election, Khan reportedly renewed Pakistan’s offer for a dialogue on contentious issues, including Kashmir dispute and terrorism, to restore peace and address problems facing the two sides.

Kumar said Modi’s letter to Khan had also made a reference to the operationalisation of the Kartarpur Corridor so that Indian pilgrims could visit the gurudwara built at the site in Pakistan, where Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, spent his final years. “He [Modi] wrote in the letter we will continue to work for the early operationalisation of the Kartarpur Corridor, functional all year round,” Kumar said. “The Indian government is committed to this corridor, which is a long-pending demand of our pilgrims,” he said.