India and Pakistan Agree to Fight Terror Together

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India and Pakistan Agree to Fight Terror Together ​

Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, met with Manmohan Singh, his Indian counterpart, in Egypt on Thursday on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheik.
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NEW DELHI — The prime ministers of India and Pakistan agreed to cooperate on fighting terrorism and continue talking to each other after the most substantive meeting between leaders of the two countries since the attacks on Mumbai, India, by Pakistan-based militants last year.

Pakistan’s prime minister pledged to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, and the two countries agreed to share real-time intelligence on terrorist threats with India, according to a joint statement released by the prime ministers.

Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime minister, met with Manmohan Singh, his Indian counterpart, in Egypt on Thursday on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheik.

Both the length of the meeting and the fact that the two sides agreed to release a joint statement hinted at a broader progress to resolve differences between the countries. No mention was made of the thorniest of issues that divide them — the foremost being the disputed region of Kashmir — but the statement nonetheless represented a small but not insignificant breakthrough. Both countries acknowledged that terrorism, rather than each other, was the main threat to each nation.

Relations between the neighbors have always been strained, but they broke down completely after the attacks by Pakistan-based Islamic militants in Mumbai that killed 166 people last November. Both have nuclear weapons, and they have fought three wars against each other since India and Pakistan were created in the partition of British India. In recent years Pakistan has also sought to channel antiterrorism funds from the United States toward defenses that would be better suited for a potential war with India.

India suspended dialogue with Pakistan after the attacks, and back-channel negotiations on Kashmir that had been going on for several years had stopped even before then, when then-president Pervez Musharraf’s government began unraveling. India has demanded that Pakistan bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice and dismantle the anti-India extremist groups working in Pakistan.

But Pakistan has been slow to act against Laskhar-e-Taiba, the group at the center of the Mumbai attacks that Pakistan’s own intelligence services nurtured for a proxy war with India in the northern territory of Kashmir.

Pakistan has detained five men suspected of involvement in the attacks, but they have yet to be formally charged, and hearings have been repeatedly delayed, with the most recent scheduled for next week.

The head of the Laskhar-e-Taiba’s political wing, a religious leader known as Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, was released from detention in June, with a Pakistani court arguing that the government had not presented sufficient evidence to continue holding him, never mind to begin a trial against him. The government appealed the ruling last week, but on Thursday the Supreme Court delayed proceedings at government request, according to Pakistani news reports.

Pakistan has said it is cooperating. It recently handed over an updated dossier with more information about its investigation into the Mumbai attacks.

India also gave Pakistan something it wanted — a promise not to link terrorism concerns to the broader issues the two countries face. This would in principle allow talks on demilitarization, water supplies and Kashmir to continue on a separate track, but it seemed unlikely that these issues would be taken up anytime soon.

Shamshad Ahmad, a former top diplomat for Pakistan, said he expected the meeting would lead to a resumption of formal talks between India and Pakistan, because, he said, the United States has been pushing the countries to begin again.

“Washington is nudging both sides to go back to the conference table,” he said. “When Washington has such deep stakes in the process I doubt India would be able to resist it.”

But Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to the United States, said that India will not be pushed into open-ended talks.

“The prime minister said he is willing to go more than halfway if Pakistan takes tangible measures,” he said. “But India is obviously frustrated that Pakistan is not making sincere efforts.”

 

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'Great victory for Pakistan, not defeat for India'
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While assessing the outcome of the meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani [ Images ] on the sidelines of the Non Aligned Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt [ Images ], Hamid Mir, political editor of the Pakistan-based Geo television channel, told rediff.com, "It was a great victory for Pakistan but not a defeat for India. Surely, India gave concessions to Pakistan keeping in mind a long term goal. I think Dr Singh has made a sacrifice to gain bigger things in future. We understand he has taken a risk by going against public opinion in India. Dr Singh has shown some flexibility."

When asked what could be those 'big' gains, Mir says, "Both countries foreign secretaries will meet in New York in September and also intelligence chiefs of the Inter Services Intelligence and Research and Analysis Wing will meet. One will have to wait for an announcement from the Pakistan side. Surely, Pakistan will have to give something substantial to satisfy Indian public opinion when India has given so many concessions today."

The two leaders seem to share a good personal rapport too. Gilani promised to send Dr Singh mangoes from Multan as a gift.

Talking about the joint statement issued after the meeting, Mir says, "History has created today because for the first time Baluchistan has been mentioned in the joint statement. Pakistan was able to internationalise the untold story of Baluchistan."

He said Kashmir was not mentioned in the statement but India agreed to talk on all 'outstanding issues'. When India insisted that mention of the Mumbai terror attacks [ Images ] must be inserted in the JS, the issue of India's alleged covert involvement in Baluchistan was brought on table by Pakistan. It was kind of a balancing act. Mir says that Pakistan Foreign Secretary F S Salaman Bashir told his Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon [ Images ] that they have evidence of Indian involvement in fermenting disturbances in Baluchistan from its consulates in Jalalabad and Khandhar in Afghanistan.

When asked why and how the Indian stand changed dramatically in Egypt when compared with its stand during talks between Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari [ Images ] in Yekaterinburg, Russia [ Images ] on June 16, Mir responded, "According to our information the meeting of India and Pakistan foreign secretaries in the last 48 hours in Egypt has been crucial. Pakistan's Bashir took a tough stand against Menon. Bashir told Menon if you bracket the Mumbai attack with the comprehensive talks between the two countries then there is no possibility of a joint statement."

The Pakistan side accepts that the Indian stance in Russia was quite hard and then they were bracketing the dialogue process with the Mumbai attacks.

Mir, who is part of the media entourage accompanying Gilani, says, "India has changed its stance but we don't see it as a win or a defeat. "

When asked how Pakistan side sees their gain in today's events, Mir said, "Pakistan impressed upon India that if you continue dictation or blackmail then dialogue will break down. Then extremists will have an upper hand. Zardari was beaten up badly in diplomacy in Russia but Gilani will go back home with pride and go up in his people's esteem."

The marathon meetings between both leaders and the two delegations show that the atmospherics were better in Egypt than in Russia.

Gilani told the Pakistan media that, "Dr Singh told me that I am not scared. I am ready to discuss all issues."

The one-on-one meeting between Singh and Gilani started on a right tone.

Gilani told the Pakistani media that he told Dr Singh in Punjabi, "You are my elder. I respect you. I expect you to treat me as a younger brother. So give me some concessions."

He reminded Dr Singh that he belongs to an area near his native place in Punjab [ Images ] province of Pakistan. "Aap usi ilake se hai," Gilani fondly reminded Dr Singh.

Mir says the Indian media or people should not see the Egypt talks in isolation. It is the question of continuity of talks and a process to reach peace between the two countries.

The Pakistani media, as expected, claims that the new thaw between India and Pakistan could have been influenced by United Sattes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [ Images ] also.

Gilani had done a better homework than Zardari. In his delegation he had members of Nawaz Sharif's [ Images ] Pakistan Muslim League-N as well. Before the meeting between the two prime ministers, Anusha Rahman from the PML-N spoke with Dr Singh for some 8-10 minutes. She assured Dr Singh that talks with Gilani were backed by the opposition parties of Pakistan.

Gilani generously shared details of his talks with Pakistani journalists. Mir says, "When Gilani returns to Pakistan he will be able to claim that 'main India se apni bat manva kar laya hun.' (I was able to get concessions from India)."

No senior officer from the ministry of external affairs in Egypt could be contacted from New Delhi [ Images ] for reaction to Gilani's talks with the Pakistan media

'Great victory for Pakistan, not defeat for India': Rediff.com news

 

[Machoman]

Let see how long this partnership works.

 

[Reddy]

This is all for show - nothing will come out of these meetings - Both countries suffer from too many insecurities and would never stop meddling in each others country.

 

[IBM]

This is all for show - nothing will come out of these meetings - Both countries suffer from too many insecurities and would never stop meddling in each others country.

Somehow i agree with u. I wish everything soughted out between us. There is so much of potencial between us that we can dominate the world. but there r lot of mistrust among each other, that it seems difficult. Above all, i feel if India and Pakistan want good relation with each other (yeah zalim duniya nahi hone degi) the world politics will not alow it to happen.