Why are we still talking to Pakistan, BJP asks govt

Taking potshots at the Congress-led UPA government for initiating talks with Pakistan, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha on Monday said he does not have any hopes from the Brigade Commander-level flag meeting between the two sides, and added that New Delhi should reply in kind to the inhuman actions of Islamabad.

"This meeting is taking place, but I don't have any hopes from this meeting because the way in which the Pakistani authorities have responded to our complaints is to say shameful in the extreme. And India seems to be putting up with every access that Pakistan commits against us and we are the ones who go with folded hands to Pakistan to say please talk to us. Why should we be in this position?" asked Sinha.

"We are a much bigger country, we have much more strength and we should, a person like me, believes reply to Pakistan in kind. Do what they do to us. If they have beheaded our jawan, we should reply in kind. What is it that we are going to get at the talks at the LoC?" he added.

Sinha also lashed out at Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for taking India to task for raising brutally beheaded soldiers' case.

The Pakistan Foreign Minister has gone to the extent of saying that she is not going to heed the voice of a billion Indians. What can be more demeaning for India than that?" he said.

Khar had earlier last week said 'any statement coming from a billion people from India does not deserve a response from Pakistan'.

The meeting between the two sides will be held at Chakkan da Bagh this afternoon.

Two Indian jawans Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh were killed by infiltrating Pakistani soldiers in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir on January 8.

Their bodies were found mutilated, sparking a diplomatic face-off between India and Pakistan and tension along the Line of Control that separates the two countries.

Pakistan has denied India's claim that its troops crossed the Line of Control to ambush a patrol party in the Mendhar sector in Poonch district.

Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) of cross- LoC trade and travel are also expected to come up for discussion during the flag meeting.