New York: India on Wednesday reiterated its stand on mediation with Pakistan and urged Islamabad to take corrective steps to tackle the menace of terrorism perpetrating in its borders. Speaking at the  Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) programme in New York on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, "You have terrorism in different parts of world but there is no part of world where a country uses it consciously and deliberately as a large scale industry against its neighbor."

When asked about whether India wants to have a dialogue with Pakistan on issues of dispute, Jaishankar said, "Issue is not whether to talk or not, everybody wants to talk to their neighbor. Issue is how do I talk to a country that is conducting terrorism & follows a policy of implausible deniability."

Further speaking upon the hotbed issue of Kashmir and abrogation of Article 370 in the state, Jaishankar said the level of intimidation had reached a height where senior police officers were lynched on streets of Srinagar, journalists who wrote against separatism were assassinated, military personnel returning home for Eid were kidnapped and killed.

"Before August 5 (Abrogation of Article 370), Kashmir was in a mess, difficulties in Kashmir did not start on August 5, it is supposed to be a way of dealing with those difficulties," EAM added.

"You have a neighbour who will not trade with you, who is member of World Trade Organization (WTO) and before that of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) but will not extend Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status even though they are legally obliged," he said.

Hitting at Pakistan further on the issue of trade and other cooperative measures, Jaishankar said, "You have a neighbor who will not allow you connectivity...who in many ways has slowed down regionalism because of concern that it might integrate them more with our economy...who filters people to people interaction. It's a very challenging neighbor."

"We had experience of 2016 when a self advertised terrorist cult figure was killed, a gentleman called Burhan Wani, after that there was spike in violence. Our intention was to manage the situation (post Article 370) without loss of life, restrictions were intended to do that," Jaishankar pointed while addressing a presser.

Even spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar held a separate press conference and once again clarified India's stand and United State President Donald Trump's remarks on mediation. "Even yesterday he (President Trump) said that India and Pakistan should both agree for any kind of mediation. Our position is very clear, it has been articulated by the Prime Minister earlier, that position remains," Kumar said.

"Discussion between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump regarding Jammu and Kashmir, yesterday, was in the context of counter-terrorism. Our position on how the matter has to be addressed has been answered in the past and there is no change in that position," Kumar added.

Tensions between India and Pakistan soared after PM Modi-led Central government abrogated Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, Pakistan has downgraded its diplomatic ties with India and even suspended bilateral trade in the aftermath of the move.

India has maintained its stand that its constitutional decisions on Kashmir are its internal matter - a point that has been supported by many countries in the world including the US.