SRINAGAR: The Centre’s calling off the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York, citing the “brutal” killing of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the release of postal stamps glorifying Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani has come as a “big disappointment” for various political parties and their leaders in the state.

Former chief minister and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti, said, “It is not any good news for anyone because it is very vital in the interest of the people of the South Asian region that the leadership of the two countries should sit together and talk. They need to talk on the very issues which area widening the gulf between the two sides and to tell what is happenings should not happen”.

While speaking to this newspaper, she added that the calling off the planned meeting in New York later this month “is a bad news particularly for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” She reiterated that the issues and problems between the two countries can be addressed to only through dialogue.”

She blamed the collapse of foreign minister level meeting before it could take place on jingoism and media war unleashed in the country.