Talks offer ‘practical’ to seek redressal on terror: India

From the Indian side,cross-border terrorism and infiltration,which witnessed a marked increase last year,will be the “centre-piece” of the proposed meeting.

Under the composite dialogue eight issues including Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism were discussed in four rounds of talks before it was “paused” in November 2008 in the wake of Mumbai attacks.

The Foreign Secretary-level talks “are not composite dialogue but just dialogue” to “unlock” the channels of communication frozen since 26/11 attacks,sources said on Sunday.

The offer of talks is a “practical and pragmatic approach” to seek redressal of India’s concerns with regard to cross-border terrorism,the sources said,adding the intention is to convey its point of view directly to the Pakistani establishment rather than “firing salvos”.

In the ice-breaking decision,Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has invited her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir here for talks and proposed February 18 and 25 for the same.

While offering Foreign Secretary-level talks as an “incremental step”,India has made it clear that there cannot be any “meaningful dialogue” or “normalisation” of relations until its prime concern of cross-border terrorism is addressed by Pakistan.

Rejecting Pakistan’s contention that it would not be able to prevent a repeat of 26/11,the sources said that if such an incident takes place again,there will be a “huge setback” to the efforts to normalise relations.

Sources here underlined that meaningful dialogue cannot take place in an environment of terror or even the threat of terror and put the onus on Pakistan government to address these issues.

“Pakistan must take all necessary steps to prevent any incident like Mumbai attacks,” the sources said.

In this regard,India highlights its concern over the February 4 joint public meeting in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir of various terror groups,which was addressed by Hafiz Saeed,chief of banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah and talked about jihad against India.

India’s disappointment over Pakistan’s inaction over the public provocative speeches will be put across the Foreign Secretary talks.

India emphasises that the Pakistan government cannot throw its hands up on this and those “in-charge” or “taking decisions” in Pakistan will have to think about these aspects.

“But we need to talk to each other,rather than at each other,” the sources said. However,for any meaningful talks,Pakistan “will have to be conscious and sensitive” to India’s concerns and crack down on terror groups and individuals.