September 6, 2007
India Proposes Dates for Terror Talks, Pakistan Undecided
New Delhi
The recent bombings in Hyderabad as well as in the Pakistani
garrison town of Rawalpindi have put the spotlight on the problem of
terrorism plaguing both countries, but Pakistan has yet to agree to
dates proposed by India for the second meeting to take their
anti-terror mechanism forward.
"India has proposed two sets of dates for the next meeting on the
anti-terror mechanism. But Pakistan has yet to agree to either of
them," an official source told IANS.
"We are ready for the talks. The problem is from their side as they
have yet to appoint the additional secretary who will head the
anti-terror mechanism from the Pakistani side," the source added.
"If Pakistan agrees, the talks can be held this month," the source
said.
Pakistan's Tariq Osman Haider, the then additional secretary (United
Nations and Economic Coordination), held talks with India's K.C.
Singh, Additional Secretary (International Organisations) at the
first meeting on the anti-terror mechanism held in Islamabad March
6. Haider retired last month.
The twin blasts in Hyderabad last month, which killed 44 people and
in which some terrorists with cross-border links are suspected to be
involved, has underlined the urgency for holding the meeting on the
anti-terror mechanism, Indian officials said.
India and Pakistan had agreed to hold a meeting on the mechanism
after every three months. The next meeting should have been held by
June, but domestic politics in Pakistan in the aftermath of the
sacking and reinstatement of the chief justice and the action
against hardline clerics of Lal Masjid came in the way.
During the first meeting on the joint mechanism, India and Pakistan
had agreed to make it "more meaningful, substantive and significant,
involving the framework for durable cooperation on terrorism".
The first meeting was held soon after the blast on cross-border
Samjhauta Express train.
Although both sides decided to carry on with the mechanism, the
Pakistani side subsequently sought to exclude terror acts in Jammu
and Kashmir from the purview of the joint mechanism - an assertion
that was quickly countered by New Delhi which said that all acts of
terrorism in its territory were covered by the mechanism.
India and Pakistan decided to set up the path-breaking anti-terror
institutional mechanism in September last year during talks between
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf on the sidelines of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in
Havana.
The mechanism was set up in the aftermath of the horrific bombings
in Mumbai's commuter trains that led to a brief suspension of the
composite dialogue between the two countries.
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