This is what India said in response to Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif's peace talk offer

INDIA on Thursday (3) responded to Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif's recent offer of talks to normalise bilateral relations between the two south Asian rival nations saying that an "environment free of terror and hostility is imperative" for any engagement between them.

Sharif, Pakistan's outgoing prime minister as the country is set to go to elections this year, made the offer of talks while addressing a business summit in Islamabad on Tuesday (1). It came six months after the Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) made a similar proposal in an interview with Al Arabiya news channel.

He said the two countries, which have fought four wars since their independence in 1947, cannot be "normal neighbours" unless serious issues are addressed through meaningful talks.

When he was asked about Sharif's remarks at a weekly media briefing, the spokesperson of India's external affairs ministry, Arindam Bagchi, said New Delhi is aware of the Pakistani leader's remarks.

“India’s clear and consistent position on this is well known. We desire normal neighbourly relations with all our neighbours, including Pakistan. For this, an environment free of terror and hostility is imperative,” he was quoted as saying.

New Delhi has said time and again that Pakistan must take strong action against terror groups based on its soil and not allow use of its territory for anti-India activities. While prime minister Narendra Modi invited then Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif to take part in his oath-taking ceremony in New Delhi in 2014 and also made a surprise visit to Sharif's residence in Lahore in 2015, incidents such as terror attacks in Pathankot in India's Punjab and Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016 paralysed possibilities of peace between the two nations.

A devastating terror attack on a convoy of Indian troops in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir in early 2019 worsened things further.

The Indian government's decision to scrap a constitutional provision for Jammu and Kashmir that gave it a special status in 2019 also saw strong reactions emerging from the Pakistani side, bringing the two nuclear-armed neighbours' relations to a standstill.

Bagchi also rubbished Pakistan’s plans to hold events on Friday (5) to oppose the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as “propaganda” on the Kashmir issue.

“Jammu and Kashmir are integral parts of the country, we don’t take these things seriously,” he said.