New Delhi
People familiar with the matter said that Indian and Pakistani delegations including politicians, retired military officials and diplomats participated in Track II discussions on the sidelines of the Regional Security Conference organized by a London-based think tank in Colombo this week.
The security conference, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), included delegates from several countries, including India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. The sources, who requested anonymity, said that the Indian and Pakistani delegations held separate discussions that extended over a day and a half at the Hilton Colombo Hotel.
The Indian delegation included Ram Madhav, who served as national general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during 2014-2020 and currently heads the India Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, General MM Naravane, who served as Indian Army chief during 2019-2022, and Ruchi Ghanashyam, a former Indian envoy to the UK who was among the first female diplomats to serve at the High Commission in Islamabad in the late 20th century. The year is 2019. The 1990s, said people familiar with developments in New Delhi, Colombo and Islamabad.
Sources said the Pakistani side includes a serving diplomat from the Foreign Ministry — South Asia and SAARC Director General Sajjad Haider Khan — PPP leader and former minister Sherry Rehman, who also served as ambassador to the US during 2011-2013, and retired Major General Asfandyar Ali Khan Pataudi, who served in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and led a mechanized section. The Pakistan Peoples Party is part of the ruling coalition in Pakistan led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
This was just the latest in a series of back-channel contacts between India and Pakistan following the four-day conflict between the two countries in May 2025. The hostilities erupted when India targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year.
HT first reported on April 17 that Indian and Pakistani strategists, parliamentarians and former diplomats have participated in at least four back-channel meetings since the conflict in May 2025, with the first such engagement taking place just two months after Operation Sindoor in London in July last year. This engagement was also organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
There are currently no formal or organized engagements or talks between India and Pakistan, although the hotline between the Directors General of Military Operations of the two sides is operational and officials speak every Tuesday.
A person familiar with the talks said that the Track II discussions in Colombo did not yield any significant results. The sources said that among the issues discussed were terrorism, sharing cross-border river waters, enhancing communications during crises, and potential steps to manage and prevent escalation of tensions.
The sources said that US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, S. Paul Kapoor, who visited Sri Lanka from June 21 to 24, attended a dinner party for participants in the conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. They added that some Indian and Pakistani delegates were also present at this dinner with a limited list of invitees.
Efforts to reach the above-mentioned Indian delegates for comment did not yield any response. In a social media post on June 24, Naravane provided evidence of travel to Colombo. Indian officials refused to comment on this development. An official explained that such back-channel communications should in no way be linked to official talks.
“We have a clear and consistent position – terrorism and talks cannot go together. There is no official link to these contacts,” the official said.
There were some efforts to portray the discussions as Track 1.5 engagement due to the presence of the Director General (South Asia and SAARC) from the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, but this was rejected by the people, who pointed out the lack of officials on duty on the Indian side.
The back-channel outreach in Colombo came a little more than a month after Dattatreya Hosabale, a senior RSS official, said in an interview in May that the government must work to protect India’s security and dignity in the face of the actions of Pakistan’s military and political establishment. “But at the same time, we should not close the doors,” he said. “We should always be ready to engage them in dialogue.”
Hosabale also said that trade and visa-related exchanges should continue in some form to ensure space for communication between the two countries. Days later, Naravane backed Hosabale’s comments while speaking to the media and said that dialogue and people-to-people relations between India and Pakistan are important. Naravane also said that people-to-people contacts, “whether through Track Two diplomacy or through sporting events”, are important.
Sherry Rehman and Asfandyar Ali Khan Pataudi, who is the uncle of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, have been part of several back channel engagements held since last year, the people said. Indian representation in communications was more diverse, including some sitting members of parliament, think tank representatives, and at least one member of the National Security Advisory Council.
