Jindal meets Sharif, sparks speculation about India-pak talks

STEEL MAGNATE Sajjan Jindal’s meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif near Islamabad on Thursday sparked speculation about secret back channel talks between New Delhi and Islamabad.

The Pakistani media reported that Jindal, who is JSW Group of Companies MD, met Sharif reportedly along with two more Indian businessmen in Murree, a hill-station 30-km from Islamabad.

Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, insisted that the meeting was not secret as TV channels ran the story throughout the day. “Mr Jindal is an old friend of the Prime Minister. Nothing ‘secret’ about the meeting & should not be blown out of proportion,’’ she tweeted. An email sent to JSW about the meeting went unanswered on Thursday.

Indian officials were tightlipped about the meeting. But Jindal’s association with the two prime ministers sparked speculation that he was in Pakistan to mediate between the two countries over former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence for alleged spying in Pakistan. The sentence has escalated tensions between the two countries.

Jindal was present at the wedding of Sharif’s granddaughter when Modi attended the ceremony in Lahore December 2015. He reportedly has business links and family ties with the Sharifs, Pakistani diplomats told The Indian Express.

The “secret” trip caused disquiet within Pakistan’s political circles with the opposition in Pakistan’s Punjab assembly demanding that the agenda of meeting to be made public, ARY News TV channel reported. It said that Jindal and others reached Islamabad from Kabul in a special aircraft at 10 am on Wednesday. They travelled to Murree by road in three vehicles. The other two Indian visitors were identified as Suket Singhal and Virander Babar Singh. Their affiliations could not be established, the channel reported. Samaa TV, another Pakistani channel, said that Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman was “unaware of the arrival of the Indian delegation in Pakistan”.