Thaindian News

Rawalpindi, April 26(ANI): Pakistan has denied a British newspaper report that Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had been communicating with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through a secret envoy, terming the report as “unfounded and totally baseless”.

Dr Singh “appointed an unofficial envoy to make contact with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who exercises de facto control over foreign policy,” The Times had said in a report.

“A spokesman of ISPR has categorically denied a news item which appeared in “The Times of London on 23rd April 2011″ regarding Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani talking to the Indian Prime Minister through a secret envoy and back channel,” the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a press release.

“The Times of London news item is unfounded and totally baseless, the spokesman concluded,” the ISPR added.

Gilani had visited India to watch the ICC World Cup Indo-Pak semi-final in Mohali on March 30 on the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Dr Manmohan Singh.

According to The Times, the talks between Gilani and Dr Singh are a ray of hope for regional peace, and the progress on the Sir Creek issue and the demilitarisation of the Siachin glacier is also being dubbed as an improvement in the Indo-Pak bilateral ties.

However, the newspaper said, the real improvement is possible only if the Pakistan Army plays its role to stop proxy war in the occupied Kashmir.

Kayani, along with Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, visited Kabul this week to meet members of the High Peace Council, a body set up by President [Hamid] Karzai, to build contacts with Taliban groups.

Noting that New Delhi, which in the past would have condemned the visit as Pakistani ‘meddling,’ remained silent on this development, the newspaper said that this provided the “latest evidence of rapprochement being driven by the US, after the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the two nations.” (ANI)