Fresh tensions cloud India peace talks
Top Indian and Pakistani foreign ministry officials met Wednesday to bolster a fragile peace dialogue undermined by fresh tensions over the 2008 Mumbai attacks and political flux in Pakistan.
New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process with Islamabad after the attacks on India’s financial capital by 10 gunmen that left 166 people dead. The full peace dialogue only resumed in February last year. Wednesday’s meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani stretched to two sessions covering peace and security, confidence building measures and Kashmir.
The two top civil servants in their respective ministries will hold further talks Thursday morning — followed by a joint press conference. The atmosphere of the talks was soured by India’s recent arrest of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, who is accused of handling the Mumbai attackers. India alleges that Ansari has “admitted helping to coordinate the deadly assault from a command post in Karachi”, and his testimony has renewed Indian accusations that “state elements” in Pakistan were involved. “It is no longer possible to deny that though the incident happened in Mumbai, there was a control room in Pakistan before and during the incident,” Home Minister P Chidambaram said Wednesday. “Without state support, the control room could not have been established.” Chidambaram said that no new dossier will be given to the visiting side on the alleged 26/11 handler Abu Jundal. He said that there was no need to give a fresh dossier to Pakistan’s foreign secretary as he has already been briefed about Jundal and his alleged terror-related activities.
Returning Tuesday from a visit to Tajikistan, Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna said the information extracted from Ansari would have to be corroborated with other sources. “That is when we will have to make a value judgement whether Pakistan can be trusted or not,” Krishna told reporters. He also said it was a “mat- ter of great regret” that Lashkar-eTaiba founder Hafiz Saeed, who India accuses of masterminding the 2008 attacks — was still “moving freely in Pakistan”. Islamabad says it wants hard evidence from India on Jundal’s Pakistan connection, and while they have denied issuing him a passport, on the eve of the talks, Indian security agencies released copies of what they said was Jundal’s Pakistani passport. The two sides will also try and make headways on two very crucial issues - Siachen and Sir Creek. The meeting of the foreign secretaries is meant to pave the way for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries later this year.