India's home minister will travel to Pakistan next week for a one-day regional meeting, New Delhi said Thursday, as tensions flare between the nuclear-armed rivals over unrest in disputed Kashmir.
Rajnath Singh will attend a meeting of home ministers from countries belonging to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Islamabad but will not hold a one-on-one with his Pakistani counterpart, the Indian foreign ministry said.
It comes days after India lashed out at Pakistan, accusing its neighbour of fanning violent protests in Indian-administered Kashmir that have claimed more than 50 lives this month.
"There is no such proposal (for a bilateral meeting)," foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said in New Delhi.
"We want a peaceful, cooperative relation with Pakistan. We are prepared to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan but in an atmosphere free of terror and violence," he said, without specifying which issues would be raised in the August 4 meeting.
The SAARC group includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
In a surprise move last December, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif with a view to restarting a stalled dialogue.
But planned peace talks were postponed after seven Indian soldiers died when an air base came under attack in January, which New Delhi blamed on a banned Pakistan-based group.
Indian-administered Kashmir has seen massive protests since the killing on July 8 of popular young rebel leader Burhan Wani in a gunfight with soldiers.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the rivals won independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
Russian soldier jailed for 12 years over murder of Tajik woman
Dushanbe, Tajikistan (AFP) July 28, 2016 –
A military court at Russia's army base in Tajikistan has sentenced a soldier to 12 years in jail for the murder of a local woman, a Russian official said Thursday.
"Senior lieutenant Ivan Sherbakov of the Russian military base [in Tajikistan] was accused of murdering 22-year-old Shoira Jobirova on the territory of the base and was sentenced to 12 years in a high security prison," the official who requested anonymity told AFP by telephone.
The official said the closed-door trial concluded last week and noted 26-year-old Sherbakov would serve out his sentence in Russia.
Sherbakov was also ordered by the court to pay $23,000 in compensation to the woman's family over the November 2015 killing.
The murder sparked protests from the ex-Soviet state's government which demanded that Moscow "take necessary measures to ensure similar actions by servicemen at the Russian military base in Tajikistan will not occur."
After an initial hearing in November Sherbakov was taken to Russia for psychological tests that saw him pronounced sane by doctors.
Tajik police told AFP at the time of the murder that Sherbakov had said he had no memory of the evening as he was drunk.
Despite Russia's 201st military base being important to fragile Tajikistan's security, the crimes committed by soldiers stationed at the base have stoked public dissatisfaction in the past.
In August last year two soldiers stationed at the base were sentenced to 17 and 13 years in prison by a Russian military court for the murder of a Tajik taxi driver in 2014.
Russia has in recent years reinforced the base with new military equipment as instability has risen in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Tajikistan, a central Asian country of around eight million, has seen fees sent home by over a million citizens working in Russia plunge by two thirds since an economic crisis struck there in 2014.
