India cancelled talks with Pakistan because of intercepted ISI messages: Report

The Indian intelligence agencies believe that Pakistan is involved in the recent killings of special police officers in Jammu and Kashmir. According to a report in The Times of India, the intelligence agencies received the information as they intercepted messages of Pakistan’s ISI.

As per the report, the intercepted messages suggested that there were “pinpointed instructions” to terrorists to kills the SPOs after abducting them.

A major reason for the cancellation of talks, between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, by India are the revelations of these intercepted messages from Pakistan’s ISI, said the report.

The instructions revealed through the intercepted message were so elaborate that the ISI had even mentioned the names of the SPOs who were to be targeted and killed by the terrorists functional in Jammu and Kashmir.

The three SPOs killed by the terrorists were – Nisar Ahmad, Firdous Ahmed and Kulwant Singh.

This comes a day after Pakistan reacted angrily to the cancellation of talks by New Delhi, with country’s foreign minister saying India’s move was triggered because of its internal issues.

Pakistan-based Geo News quoted Qureshi as saying that India cited an issue that took place in July to cancel talks that would have taken place now. The Pakistan foreign minister said that what New Delhi did was “not appropriate”.

Qureshi further accused India of “crushing diplomatic protocol” by cancelling the talks scheduled to be held on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York.

Pakistan foreign office had also released a statement saying reasons cited by India for cancellation of talks were “entirely unconvincing”. The statement further claimed that Pakistan military had no role in the killing of Border Security Force (BSF) jawan recently.

The reasons cited by the Indian side for the decision to cancel the Foreign Ministers' meeting, within 24 hours of its public confirmation, are entirely unconvincing. The so-called "disturbing developments" alluded to in the Indian statement predated the Indian agreement to hold the bilateral meeting in New York,” read the statement released by the Pakistan government.