India and Pakistan have resumed dialogue with the two foreign secretaries meeting in New Delhi in what is the first formal and structured meeting since the Mumbai terror mayhem which introduced a chill in their bilateral relations. The Indian Express headline summed up the mood saying ‘Ice breaks, talks start, in public and private’.
But by general consensus no progress was made on core issue – terrorism unleashed by Pakistan based militant groups against India. In that sense it is stalemate. The fact that the meeting between Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir happened at all is significant. It cleared the decks for the start of quiet back-channel engagement between former Pak Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Special Envoy Satinder Lambah.
“We have set out to take a first step toward rebuilding trust, Nirupama Rao, told reporters after meeting for four hours with her Pakistani counterpart, Salman Bashir. “We have agreed to remain in touch,” she said. She was short on details the details of what India called the ‘talks about talks’.
Rao handed over three dossiers of intelligence – one on the Mumbai attackers, another on other fugitives in Pakistan, and a third on Ilyas Kashmiri, a militant leader with close links to al Qaeda.
Earlier this month, Kashmiri had warned foreigners not to attend three forthcoming sporting events in India – the Hockey World Cup, the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, and the Commonwealth Games.
One of these dossiers named a serving Pakistani Army officer for his suspected involvement in the Mumbai terror attack.
The dossier has also named another officer, who has retired as a Major. The two officers have been referred as ‘Major Iqbal’ and ‘Major Samir Ali,’
FBI’s interrogation of US terror suspect David Headley (arrested in Chicago in Sept last year in connection with the Mumbai attack) put the spot light on ‘’Major Iqbal’.
India has named 8 people, including ‘Major Iqbal’ and Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the suspected 26/11 mastermind. India wants Pakistan to take action against these men and then hand them over to India.
Another dossier given by India says Pakistan is providing sanctuary to militants of the Indian Mujahideen and Khalistani supporters. It demands handing over of seven Khalistani militants and 17 Indian Mujahideen terrorists – five of them Pakistani nationals for their role in subversive activities.
Four of the seven Khalsitani militants were named. They are Jagtar Singh Hawara alias Tara, Ranjeet Singh alias Neeta, Harminder Singh and Lakhvinder Singh alias Rody.
