India Today reports that India is likely to call off the meeting between foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month. However, there is as yet no formal announcement from the Ministry of External Affairs on this.


The news if confirmed, comes after the killing and mutilation of a BSF jawan at the border yesterday.  Following an attack by Pakistani forces on Tuesday, head constable Narender Kumar was found with multiple bullet injuries and gashes that suggested his throat was slit and an attempt was made to gouge his eyes out, say reports.


India has insisted that the talks were in no way a resumption of dialogue between the nations that was suspended in 2015.  The Swaraj-Qureshi meeting will be the first engagement at this level since January 2016 when New Delhi halted the dialogue with Islamabad in the aftermath of Pathankot terror attack, for which India holds Pakistan-based groups responsible.

Indo-Pak ties have nose-dived since then in view of a number of terror strikes by Pakistan-based groups, which India retaliated by carrying out 'surgical strikes' in September 2016 across the LoC.