Sworn to talks, General may get tough at home

The official pointed out that never before had Pakistan, in any bilateral document, assured India it wouldn’t allow any part of its territory used for terrorism.

It’s another story that a joint statement looked somewhat bleak on Monday morning when Vajpayee was supposed to meet Musharraf. Islamabad wasn’t so enthusiastic about mentioning the terrorism angle during negotiations on the draft statement.

National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, who arrived in Islamabad on January 1, had held at least three meetings with his Pakistani counterpart Tariq Aziz.

But keeping track and keen on a joint statement, Musharraf personally instructed Aziz and his Chief of Staff Lt General Hamid Javed to make every effort to seal the statement. In fact, Musharraf gave these instructions openly during his meeting with Vajpayee, extending a 25 minute ‘‘courtesy call’’ to a 55-minute bilateral meeting.

Once the instructions went out, Mishra found himself in another three rounds of parleys with Aziz and Javed to draft the joint statement. At 9.30 am on Tuesday, it’s learnt that Mishra went with the final draft to Musharraf’s office at Aiwan-i-Sadr, the presidential palace, and told Aziz and Javed to take the draft to Musharraf while he would put it up before Vajpayee. When Vajpayee saw the draft, he had a call placed to Musharraf. The two leaders spoke on the phone for more than six minutes and okayed the draft, locking the ‘‘deal’’ for the statement to be made public. Officials here say they are aware that militants opposed to Indo-Pak dialogue would try to stir up trouble in Jammu and Kashmir. So any new incident will be carefully assessed, officials said, before blaming Pakistan.

In fact, Mishra and Aziz now have open communication channels to share information in the event of any militant attack.

Armed with precise details of militant camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, India will be in a position to judge Musharraf’s assurances on the cross-border terrorism front.