India-Pakistan talks: Terror, Kashmir on table

[SpArK]

India-Pakistan talks: Terror, Kashmir on table​

New Delhi: With four days to go for the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan, India on Sunday said it will focus on its continuing concerns on cross-border terror and adopt 'an exploratory approach' to work out steps to reduce the post-Mumbai attack trust deficit between the two countries.

When Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao holds talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Islamabad on Thursday, India will press for the speedy trial of the seven 26/11 suspects in Pakistan, concrete action against Hafiz Saeed, the suspected mastermind of the Mumbai carnage, and against those groups based in Pakistan that nurture anti-India agenda.


New Delhi will also take up a spike in cross-border infiltration and ceasefire violations that are marring the spirit of thaw that followed the talks between the leaders of the two countries in Thimphu nearly two months ago.

India is going into these talks with the confidence and approach that all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, will be discussed with an intention to find steps to reduce trust deficit between the two countries even if they are modest, official sources said here.

These confidence-building steps could consist of an early meeting of the judicial committee on prisoners, enhanced commercial and economic ties and cross-border confidence building measures (CBMs).

Rao will leave for Islamabad Wednesday along with Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, who will participate in the meetings of senior officials of the SAARC countries.

Rao's talks with Bashir will be followed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram's participation in the SAARC meeting of home ministers in Islamabad Saturday.

Outlining India's approach towards the crucial talks that will firm up the agenda for dialogue between the foreign ministers of the two countries July 15 in Islamabad, the sources added that although all issues will be on the table, New Delhi will stress on its continuing concerns over terrorism.

'We are going there not in accusatory mode, but we are going there in an exploratory mode,' the sources said.

In this spirit, India is hoping that the Pakistani side will re-affirm the progress made by the two sides during their composite dialogue 2004-2007 and in their back-channel talks on Kashmir that will encourage the two sides to pick up threads from where they left.

If there is a clear signal that the Pakistani civilian government is fully cognizant of the progress made during that period, it would certainly be a trust-building step, the sources pointed out.

Speaking at a seminar recently, Rao had suggested pursuing 'creative solutions' on complex issues like Kashmir, based on progress made by the two countries either through composite dialogue or back-channel diplomacy.

The two sides are likely to announce some confidence building measures at the July 15 meeting to signal progress in the direction of resuming their dialogue that got stalled after the Mumbai attack, the sources said.

From New Delhi's standpoint, terror will stop the agenda.




The intelligence reports about terror attacks being planned across the border have not ceased coming. What would happen if another attack were to take place? It would have very damaging impact on our dialogue and relations,' the sources said.

The Indian side indicated that its effort will be to ensure that the dialogue is not broken off by addressing the issue of terrorism that has complicated the relations between the two countries.

The Pakistani side must ensure that there are no attacks against Indian nationals, Indian interests and India, the sources said.

The discussion on terrorism will also include attacks on Indian projects and people in Afghanistan in the last few years.

India on Friday handed over an 11th dossier to Pakistan, in response to issues raised by the latter in the six dossiers relating to the Mumbai attack, April 25.

The sources disclosed that the 11th dossier contains copies of the deposition of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured during the 26/11 attack, and extensive evidence of Saeed's complicity in the Mumbai carnage.

 

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India ready to discuss Afghanistan issue with Pakistan


New Delhi: With intelligence reports indicating the possibility of attacks on Indian assets in Afghanistan, India on Sunday said the issue will figure during the foreign secretary level talks in Islamabad next week and indicated that it was ready for a larger discussion on the situation in the violence-torn country.

India has made it clear that it is ready to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan when Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao holds talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Islamabad on Thursday.

Rao is expected to voice India's continuing concerns over terrorism directed by elements across the order and press Islamabad for concrete action against anti-India groups.



During the discussions on terrorism, official sources said here, India will raise repeated attacks on on Indian projects and people in Afghanistan in the last few years.

These attacks are suspected to be masterminded by Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) which is said to resent India's growing range of reconstruction activities that has generated enormous goodwill for the country.

With Afghanistan emerging as a potential theatre of rivalry, India has signalled that it was ready to discuss the larger Afghan situation with Islamabad during the foreign-secretary level talks.

'If they want to raise it, we will not shy away from discussing it,' said the sources.

In the 1980s, the two sides discussed Afghanistan regularly. However, with the changing geopolitical situation in the region, specially after the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, Pakistan has repeatedly questioned India's growing profile in Afghanistan and launched a diplomatic campaign aimed at reducing New Delhi's influence in that country.

'It's for Pakistan to understand India's role in reconstruction of Afghanistan,' said the sources.


Outlining India's position, Rao stressed at a recent seminar that India neither saw Afghanistan as a battleground for competing national interests nor assistance to Afghan reconstruction and development as a zero sum game.

With Pakistan in mind, Rao alluded to $1.3 billion India's assistance for building infrastructure and capacity building and made it clear that 'these are by no definition, activities that are inimical to the interest of the people of Afghanistan or its neighbours'.

 

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All issues to be discussed in talks with India: Qureshi

Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said all issues, including water and terrorism, will be discussed in the forthcoming talks with India, stressing the need to bridge the trust deficit between the two countries.

Talking to reporters in Multan, he said that the Indian foreign secretary is visiting Islamabad June 24 for talks with her Pakistani counterpart and with him, Online news agency reported.


Indian External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna is expected to visit Pakistan July 15, he said, adding that all the issues will be raised during the talks.

'We have long-standing issues with New Delhi which also include matters pertaining to water and terrorism,' he said and emphasised the need for bridging the trust deficit for making a serious forward movement on all the outstanding issues between the two countries.

He also said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Pakistan in July and the Pakistan-US strategic dialogue will be completed by July 9.

 

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Chidambaram to brief Pakistan about Headley disclosures


Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will travel to Pakistan next week armed with a mandate to brief his counterpart there about some of the information Indian investigators have gleaned from their recent interrogation in Chicago of Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley.

At its meeting here on Sunday night, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) once again endorsed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's broad approach towards trust-building and dialogue with Pakistan. Mr. Chidambaram, who will travel to Pakistan on June 25 for a meeting of Saarc Interior Ministers, will also have a bilateral meeting with the Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik on the sidelines.

“He is not going there to talk about the resumption of dialogue,” the sources said, “but the CCS has asked him to update Mr. Malik on what all has happened in India on the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.” In addition, he will brief the Pakistani side about some of the disclosures Headley has made about his connections with LeT handlers and others, most probably in a one-on-one meeting without the presence of other officials.

The ‘voluminous' documentation India handed over to Pakistan last week contains detailed responses to all the questions which Islamabad had raised in a set of dossiers on April 25, official sources said. In those, Pakistan had made certain requests for information and testimony that it said were required in order to properly prosecute the LeT men standing trial in a Rawalpindi court for their role in the Mumbai attack. “We have sent them all the documentation to do with the confession of Ajmal Kasab, including from the magistrate and investigating officer, and we feel it is not necessary for them to appear in court in Pakistan,” the sources said. “Let us see what their response is.” In its latest dossier, India has also cited specific provisions of the Indian Penal Code that it believes LeT chief Hafiz Saeed has violated, including waging war.

Based on Mr. Chidambaram's interaction with the Pakistani side, the government would be in a better position to assess how sincere Islamabad is being in implementing the commitment Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani made to Dr. Singh in Thimphu in April about not allowing anti-India terrorists to use Pakistan's soil to stage attacks, the sources said.

Asked whether some kind of interaction between the National Investigation Agency and Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency could help build trust, the sources said the response Mr. Chidambaram got “would help us to focus on what steps we could take to build trust at the institutional level.” What India wanted was “productive engagement,” something that was absent from the erstwhile Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism, they added.

The sources said the Indian side was not going to Pakistan “with a digital scale in [its hand].” “We are genuine when we say dialogue should resume and concerns on terror should be dealt with … Let us not prejudge the outcome.”

OPEN MIND

Asked about Kashmir, the sources said India had an open mind and was “fully prepared to discuss contentious issues if Pakistan raises them, with confidence.” They stressed that all issues fell within the scope of the Foreign Secretary-level discussions that would take place on June 24. “Whether it is water, peace and security, confidence building measures … We are looking at the whole relationship as an integrated subject.”

 

[karan.1970]

well.. now that this is happening, what are the chances of another attack in India to derail this??? Heaven forbid...These guys should just talk on phone and emails without making the whole tamasha of talks and meetings..