NSA DIALOGUE TO RUN PARALLEL TO PM TALKS; FOCUS ON TRIAL

NEW DELHI: With prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif deciding in Paris last month to take the Indo-Pak dialogue process forward, talks between the national security advisers (NSA) will now run parallel to the comprehensive bilateral dialogue between the neighbouring countries.

The two mechanisms will also be linked to the progress made by Islamabad on its commitment to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and expedite the 26/11 Mumbai attacks trial, official sources told HT. The twin-track process may come up for bilateral review by the two PMs on the sidelines of the SAARC regional summit in Islamabad next year.

After a green signal from the prime ministers, a successful meeting in Bangkok between NSA Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart, Lt Gen Nasir Khan Janjua, prepared the ground for talks between the foreign ministers and the revival of the comprehensive dialogue in a sign of thawing ties.

Sources said first Doval and then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj made it amply clear that Islamabad would have to move fast to conclude the 26/11 trial as public perception in India about the neighbouring nation was coloured by the Mumbai attacks, which bore the imprints of both Pakistan’s state machinery and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group.

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