Planned high-level talks between India and Pakistan have been cancelled hours before they were due to start on Sunday, amid mutual recriminations.

Pakistan said that it could not accept India’s “preconditions” for the talks, while India denied that it was to blame.

Delhi said that it was only willing to discuss “terrorism-related issues” at the talks and nothing else.

Pakistan argued that talks purely on this basis would be futile.

Analysts say that many in India believe that PM Narendra Modi’s government appears to have recognised that a quest for durable peace with Pakistan is a non-starter.