PM Kashmir remarks can harm peace talks: Sharif

Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif Saturday said Manmohan Singhs remarks that Islamabad should leave Kashmir alone could harm peace talks between the two countries.

This is not a political statement. Such statements complicate matters, Sharif,who is chief of the opposition PML-N,said. The Indian prime minister should not have made such a statement and there was no need for it. Such a statement could create a hurdle in the reconciliation process between the two countries.

In his interaction with editors,Singh had said he hoped that Pakistan will leave Kashmir alone because they have their own share of internal problems.

Sharif,who had earlier faced criticism for saying Pakistan should stop considering India an enemy,also said that he and former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had worked on modalities to resolve the Kashmir dispute in 1999.