India will raise the issue of terrorism and infiltration during its talks with Pakistan, scheduled for May 20-21, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said on Wednesday. However, he refused to speculate on the terror outfits behind the attacks, saying he did not want to get into a “hypothetical mind-reading exercise”.Asked if the Jaipur blasts would figure in the talks, Menon replied: “Under peace and security, this is very high on our agenda. we have always said that stopping cross-border terrorism is high priority. And it is a necessary condition, in many ways, for what we are trying to achieve here in the relationship with Pakistan. So, certainly we will raise it.”To a question on whether India was in talks with Dhaka, since Bangladesh-based terrorist outfits are reported to have been involved in recent attacks, Menon said: “I do not want to jump to conclusions here. All this happened on Tuesday. We are still in the process of investigation. Once we come to certain conclusions, we will decide what we do, who we talk to, where we go.”On whether the Government was taken by surprise by the firing at the LoC and the blasts, Menon said: “Unfortunately, terrorism is a fact of life for us. We have lived with it for some time. So, it is not a question of being surprised. It is a question of finding a way to deal with it, combat it, eliminate it. And we need to do that at every level. It is not just a question of doing it with somebody, with another country, with what we do at home. It is a complex problem.”Menon also declined to comment on Defence Minister A K Anthony’s remarks on the link between the increase in infiltration and elections in Jammu and Kashmir later this year. “I do not want to start speculating about motives and why there is infiltration. For us, the fact of infiltration itself is the problem and we will deal with it on the ground. We will also raise it with Pakistan.”
