Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Indo-pak dialogue freeze set to complete a decade

- Rezaul Hasan Laskar letters@hindustant­imes.com CONTINUED ON P 6

Pakistan and India have three options: We could have war... follow the offensive defence policy of (Indian NSA) Ajit Doval and keep weakening each other... or let’s try to talk to each other while softening our positions FAWAD CHAUDHRY,

Pakistan informatio­n minister

NEWDELHI: India and Pakistan are inching towards another milestone in their fraught relationsh­ip – 10 years without any structured or sustained dialogue aimed at addressing outstandin­g issues such as terrorism, Kashmir and humanitari­an issues.

Within days of the Mumbai attacks carried out by operatives of Pakistan-based Lashkar-eTaiba during November 26-29, 2008, India called off the more than a decade-old composite dialogue, with Indian diplomats saying it could no longer be business as usual.

To be sure, there have been several interactio­ns in this period, but no composite dialogue. Terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil remains the central hurdle to New Delhi resuming talks with Islamabad. External affairs ministry spokespers­on Raveesh Kumar said on October 18 there is currently “no proposal for a Track 1 or 1.5 dialogue or meetings between India and Pakistan.”

“We have time and again very clearly mentioned talks and terror can’t go together, that it was one of the reasons why the scheduled meeting in New York between the two foreign ministers (in September) was cancelled,” he told a news briefing.

The spokespers­on made it clear the “onus is on Pakistan to take credible steps to create conducive conditions” for talks, “which of course, means taking action against terrorist infrastruc­ture which operates from its soil.”

Pakistan, however, remains hopeful of some sort of breakthrou­gh despite the cancellati­on of the meeting of the foreign ministers on the margins of the UN General Assembly, with informatio­n minister Fawad Chaudhry saying talks remain the only option.

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