Sartaj Aziz tells India Pakistan has nuclear weapons

Pakistan's national security advisor Sartaj Aziz, who wriggled off from a dialogue with India over how to rein in terrorist groups operating within Pakistan, has now turned himself a potential terrorist, threatening India with Pakistan's nuclear armory.

Faced with the unpalatable evidence of Pakistan harbouring traitors like Dawood Ibrahim, the Pakistani NSA, who is looking for an excuse for abandoning talks, now accuses India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi of acting like a regional superpower.

''Modi's India acts as if they are a regional superpower, we are a nuclear-armed country and we know how to defend ourselves,'' Dawn newspaper quoted Aziz, who advises Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief on foreign affairs and national security as saying.

''India should realise after the current episode that their tactics are not working, and they need to be sincere about dialogue with Pakistan,'' he added.

Aziz also claimed that Pakistan has proof that India's involvement in terrorism in his country. ''Propaganda against Pakistan is more important for the Indians, rather than giving us evidence,'' he said.

In a bid to bolster the morale of Pakistan's supporters in Kashmir, the Pakistan NSA also advised India to hold a referendum in ''occupied Kashmir''.

India was on the right track in insisting that the agenda of talks would be cross-border terrorism, but the Indian government seems to have fumbled in stopping the Hurriyat men from talking to Pakistani NSA.

The result is that India and Pakistan failed to hold talks, but the Kashmiri separatists gained some mileage in the process.

Pakistan foreign office had said it has "come to the conclusion that the NSA talks would not serve any purpose if conducted on the basis of the two conditions" laid down by India - a clear signal calling off the talks.

India's external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted in reply: "Pakistan's decision is unfortunate. India did not set any preconditions.''

"We only reiterated that Pakistan respect the spirit of the Simla and Ufa Agreements to which it was already committed," he said.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had in a press conference earlier stated that Pakistani National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz was welcome to come to India for talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval but Islamabad must abide by the agenda agreed to at Ufa and only discuss terrorism.

Aziz, on the other hand, told a press conference earlier in Islamabad that he was willing to come for the talks provided Kashmir is on the table and he also spoke with the Kashmiri separatists.