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India Cancels Foreign Minister's Rare Meeting With Pakistani Counterpart


Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will not meet with his Indian counterpart after all.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will not meet with his Indian counterpart after all.

A rare meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan has been canceled just a day after India announced the talks would take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in late September.

India's Foreign Ministry said on September 21 the talks were called off after what it described as the "latest brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities."

The ministry said the meeting was also being canceled by New Delhi in protest of the release by Pakistan of a series of 20 postage stamps "glorifying a terrorist and terrorism."

Pakistan recently issued postage stamps of Burhan Wani, a Kashmiri militant commander who was killed by Indian troops in July 2016.

The ministry did not provide further details about the killings.

On September 20, India announced that talks had been scheduled after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to request talks on long-running disputes between the nuclear-armed neighbors -- including the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

India has long accused Pakistan of arming rebel groups in Kashmir.

It also blames Pakistan for financing the deadly 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence in 1947.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and the Daily Mail
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