The challenge for Pakistani and Indian leaders is "how to break through the barriers of hostility", said a daily here on Monday after national security adviser level talks between the two countries were not held.An editorial "Playing hard ball" in the News International said that hurling "blame one way and the other will solve nothing". "The arrest of a key Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah as he arrived in New Delhi to meet (Pakistan's National Security Adviser Sartaj) Aziz and the arrest on Saturday of senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani also sends out the same message."It said that the challenge for leaders is "how to break through the barriers of hostility".
"They appear to be growing higher and higher with each passing week. It is unfortunate that the precise nature of discussions at Ufa were not more transparent and more carefully spelled out before the public. "This complicates matters."
The daily said that essentially it all boils down to attitude. "India at present is not willing to abandon its increasingly anti-Pakistan position and this will make it harder than ever before to move towards the dialogue the two countries and the region so urgently need. The attempts to do so must however continue given that there is really no other choice for the two nations and their people," it said.
The talks between Sartaj Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval were called off just a day ahead of Aziz's visit to New Delhi on Sunday.Pakistan’s Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid has said that India made a clear U-turn on its previous position while there was no change in Pakistan’s stance. The foreign office has also said terrorism was always on the agenda and there was every intention to discuss it, but this could not be the sole topic for talks, the daily said.