Islamabad, September 18: Days after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi ruled out talks with India until the recent measures in Jammu & Kashmir are not repealed, the country's Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has reiterated the position. A statement issued by him on Wednesday said there will be no dialogue with India in view of the current clampdown in the Kashmir Valley. India Seeks Pakistan's Permission to Use Its Air Space For PM Narendra Modi's Flight to US.

"There's no chance of talks with India on Kashmir until curfew is lifted," the Pakistani media quoted Khan as saying. The statement comes days after the Pakistan PM, while addressing a Kashmir Hour rally in Muzaffarabad, said he would go to any extent to "liberate Kashmir".

Khan further added that he has been successfully raising the Kashmir issue at the international stage unlike his predecessors. "No other Prime Minister has raised the Kashmir issue in this manner," he said.

Update by ANI:

The sharpening of rhetoric by Khan comes hours after India issued an official request to Pakistan, seeking access to its airspace for flying the VVIP carrier carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Houston on September 22.

Notably, ties between Islamabad and New Delhi has been deteriorating since August 5, when the Modi government took the unprecedented move to revoke Jammu & Kashmir's special status. Ever since, Kashmir has remained under a lockdown with mobile phone services yet to be restored in the Valley districts.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 18, 2019 07:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).