India did not try to resume dialogue with Pakistan: Foreign Ministry

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said it had not sent any message to Pakistan to re-start a dialogue, refuting a recent statement by Prime Minister Imran Khan's special advisor on national security Moeed Yusuf that New Delhi had expressed a desire for conversation.

Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said Islamabad's support to terrorism and use of abusive language against New Delhi did not create a conducive atmosphere for normal neighbourly relations.

Srivastava described as "misleading and fictitious" Yusuf’s remarks on India adding that it was part of an effort by Pakistan to divert attention from domestic failures of the Imran Khan government.

Yusuf’s remarks on India were made in an interview to the Indian news portal the Wire and they were made public earlier this week. In the interview, Yusuf had said that India had sent messages to Islamabad expressing a desire to have talks with Pakistan.

When asked, Srivastave said: "as regards the purported message, let me make it clear that no such message was sent from our side. We have seen reports on the interview by a senior Pakistani official to an Indian media outlet. He has commented on India's internal matters."

"As always, this is Pakistan's effort to divert attention from domestic failures of the present government and mislead its domestic constituents by pulling India into headlines on a daily basis," he told reporters at a foreign office briefing in New Delhi.

Srivastava said the official was “well advised” to restrict his counsel to his establishment and not to comment on India's domestic policy.

"The statements made by him are contrary to facts on the ground, misleading and fictitious," he said.

The Pakistani leadership continued to make inappropriate and provocative speeches against India, he said adding that Islamabad continued to support to terrorism against New Delhi. This alongwith the use of "derogatory and abusive language" was not conducive to normal neighbourly relations.

Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after a terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force station in 2016. Subsequent attacks, including one on Indian Army camp in Uri, exacerbated tensions between the two countries. Ties dipped after India's aerial strike against terrorist training camps inside Pakistan in February last year after a car bomb attack on a paramilitary convoy killed 40 personnel. The withdrawal of the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under the constitution was severely criticized by Pakistan at all for a including at the UN, further vitiating the atmosphere between the two countries.