Attacks sink Indo-Pak talks

The Mumbai attacks have put an abrupt halt to the steady pace of the Indo-Pak peace process. All talks scheduled with Pakistan under the Composite Dialogue have been put off. The first casualty has been the talks on Sir Creek, for which dates were expected early this month. The aim was to finish this round of Composite Dialogue by the year end and then have foreign secretary-level talks next month. There was even speculation that in the Track II process, the two foreign secretaries could do some initial discussions to explore a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But foreign secretary-level talks are now almost ruled out for January unless in connection with the terror investigations. India has also tightened visa rules in Islamabad and, in effect, put in cold storage a new, liberalised visa agreement that had almost been stitched.