Omar welcomes Indo-Pak NSA talks away from media glare

Srinagar, December 6

Former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today welcomed the talks between National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan in Bangkok, stating that holding the dialogue away from media glare can lead to "quiet progress".

"Good to see India and Pakistan resume the dialogue process," Omar wrote on microblogging site twitter.

"Perhaps this is the way quiet progress will be made away from each other's capitals and the glare of media driven expectations," he tweeted.

The working president of opposition National Conference was reacting to a sudden breakthrough in Indo-Pak ties, wherein National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan held talks in the Thai capital today on a wide gamut of bilateral ties including terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir, and agreed to take forward the "constructive" engagement.

Omar noted the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Paris recently was more than courtesy meeting.

"Clearly Paris was more than the officially termed courtesy meeting," he said.

The NC leader added that it was a challenge to ensure that the dialogue process between the two countries was protected from incidents specifically aimed at derailing it.

"Now the challenge is to make sure the Indo-Pak dialogue process is ring-fenced from incidents designed specifically to derail it," he said. — PTI