New Delhi
18 June 2010
Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir, who will hold talks with his Indian
counterpart Nirupama Rao in Islamabad on June 24, expects "detailed talks" on a
framework for fighting terrorism, including, possibly, a revamp of the joint anti-terrorism
mechanism that was agreed upon in 2006.
"We can look into an array of things that we can do together instead of indulging in a
blame game. We could develop the modalities of a framework for fighting terrorism and
yes, revamp the anti terrorism mechanism. In this area we will have detailed talks with
the Indian home minister. It will be useful to get input both from him and the foreign
secretary which would be given to the foreign minister," Ms Bashir has told The News, a
Pakistani newspaper.
The foreign secretary-level talks will be followed by home minister P Chidambaram's
meeting with his Pakistan counterpart Rehman Malik on the sidelines of the Saarc home
ministers' meeting in Islamabad on June 26, and external affairs minister SM Krishna's
meeting with Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Pakistani foreign minister, also in Islamabad,
on July 15.
Ahead of next week's talks, New Delhi on Friday handed over a set of responses to the
six dossiers received from Islamabad on April 25 in connection with the Mumbai attacks.
The information was shared in a meeting between YK Sinha, joint secretary in charge of
Pakistan desk in the external affairs ministry, and Pakistan's deputy high commissioner
Riffat Masood.
In the dossiers, Pakistan had asked India to allow two magistrates and an investigator to
be allowed to travel to testify in a Pakistan court that they had recorded the statement of
Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist captured alive during the attacks, who has since
been sentenced to death. Pakistan had also asked for Kasab to be handed over to it in
order to facilitate the trial of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba's (LeT's) operations commander Zakiur
Rehman Lakhvi and six others charged by a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court with
involvement in the Mumbai attacks. Besides containing response to all the queries
raised by Pakistan in their dossiers, India has also provided additional information on
those involved in the Mumbai attacks. Government sources said the information shared
with Pakistan included the judgment by the special Mumbai court sentencing Kasab to
death, Kasab's confessional statement and a compilation of the court proceedings
running into over 2000 pages. Lakhvi, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and about 20
other Pakistani nationals were involved in the 26/11 attacks. Kasab had confessed that
Hafiz Saeed and his other Pakistani handlers had given training and issued the final
instructions to the 10 terrorists before they set sail from Karachi on a boat to unleash
terror in Mumbai. "The judgment of the special Mumbai court will help the Pakistan
government take action against the perpetrators of 26/11," an official said.
Bashir's suggestion of revamping the anti-terror mechanism was met with scepticism in
diplomatic circles here. Kanwal Sibal, a former secretary, told this newspaper that
intelligence sharing would not produce results to India's satisfaction because the state
agencies of Pakistan themselves were involved in terrorism, and they would not share
or accept evidence against organisations they have nurtured. Instead, he expected
Pakistan to use the mechanism for raising issues such as Indian involvement in
Balochistan and Afghanistan. Mr Sibal maintained that Pakistan, whose policies have
been full of irrational hostilities against India, needed to radically change its attitude
towards India if dialogue was to succeed. Although Mr Sibal did not expect any dramatic
outcomes, he welcomed dialogue because its absence would release whatever little
pressure there was on Pakistan to come good on its promises of stopping terrorist
activities against India and to bring the 26/11 terrorists to justice.
Bashir, who held forth on bilateral issues in his interaction with The News, a Pakistani
newspaper, skirted the issue of whether Pakistan would validate the progress that was
made in back-channel talks prior to the Mumbai terror attacks -- a desire voiced by India
as recently as June 13 when Ms Rao said here in her address to the Afghanistan-India-
Pakistan trialogue organised by Delhi Policy Group that "... we also have to reaffirm the
progress made through complex negotiations and dialogue through patient and unsung
effort whether in the composite dialogue or back channel diplomacy[.] We must seek
creative solutions".
Even Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, a former foreign minister of Pakistan, had claimed that
both sides had come close to resolving the Kashmir dispute and that an agreement had
been reached in back-channel talks on the basis of proposals forwarded by the then
Pakistan president Gen Pervez Musharraf (Retd).
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