By C.K. Nayak and Asad Hashim
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India and Pakistan blamed each other on Saturday for putting at risk a planned peace meeting, with New Delhi warning that talks would be called off if its bitter rival decided to meet separatist leaders of the disputed region of Kashmir.
The trading of charges just hours before a meeting of the national security advisers (NSA) of the nuclear-armed neighbours could derail talks for the second time under the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and further sour relations.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since becoming separate nations in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in part.
New Delhi has for years accused Islamabad of backing separatist Muslim rebels in India's part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies the allegations.
India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said Saturday's talks would be cancelled if the Pakistan's NSA Sartaj Aziz insisted on meeting the separatists. India detained a Kashmiri leader on Saturday after he landed in New Delhi for a meeting with Aziz.
"If they say 'we still do not agree', then there will be no talks," Swaraj told a press conference.
India is ready to discuss only terrorism-related issues at the talks and "no third party" should be involved, Swaraj said, referring to the separatist leaders.
She asked Pakistan to decide by Saturday evening. A Pakistan government source said talks were "not possible in this bitter environment".
Earlier, Aziz said in Islamabad he was disappointed that India had "virtually cancelled" the scheduled talks.
The prospects of the much-awaited talks, set between Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Russia last month, had also been clouded in recent weeks by a series of militant attacks and border skirmishes. Swaraj said there has been 91 ceasefire violations since the meeting between the premiers.
The divergence of talking points has also been a stumbling block: Indian official sources had said they wanted to provide proof that militants were getting support from over its western border, while Pakistan wanted the talks to be broader and include issues on Kashmir.
Aziz said he was planning to present India's NSA Ajit Doval three dossiers on what he called the Indian intelligence wing's involvement in promoting terrorism in Pakistan.
Pakistan said it was not expecting the scheduled peace talks to lead to any breakthrough and that the purpose was only to reduce tensions between the neighbours.
(Additional reporting by Rupam Jain Nair; Writing by Aditya Kalra and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Toby Chopra and Gareth Jones)
