PM,Gilani headed for Bhutan; meet up to Pak

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned home on Saturday after a week-long interaction with world leaders in Washington and Brasilia....

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned home on Saturday after a week-long interaction with world leaders in Washington and Brasilia,the focus will shift quickly from such exalted issues as nuclear security,south-south cooperation and the promotion of a multipolar world to the pressing challenges in the immediate neighbourhood.

With the question of talking to Pakistan back on the front burner,well placed sources in the government say it all depends on what Islamabad does with anti-India terror groups based on its soil. While insisting on credible action from Pakistan,the government does not want to define too clearly,in public at least,the benchmarks by which it plans to judge Islamabad’s moves. That ambiguity,some analysts hope,will generate sufficient political space for India and Pakistan to move forward.

Reacting to the speculation that Singh will indeed sit down with his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani on the margins of a South Asia Summit in Bhutan at the end of this month,the sources said that nothing is inevitable.

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At the same time they suggested purposeful steps from Islamabad against the plotters of the Mumbai carnage could significantly alter the context of the bilateral relationship that has been in the doldrums since 26/11.

The international interest in the resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue and the Indian emphasis on bringing the plotters of the Mumbai attack to book had come up in Singhs conversation with US President Barack Obama in Washington earlier this week. Obama,in turn,had raised the issue of Pakistani actions on the Mumbai accused during his meeting with Gilani.

At the end of his visit to Washington,where he had run into Gilani twice,Dr Singh had made direct references to the leaders of Lashkar-e-Toiba roaming freely in Pakistan. The LeT is widely seen as a strategic asset of the Pakistan Army against India. Asked if India was seeking the head of the LeT,Hafeez Mohammed Saeed as a precondition for talks with Pakistan,the sources said they did not want to personalise the issue of terrorism between the two countries. To be sure,the sources said action against Saeed might “show a measure of political will” on part of Pakistan’s security establishment to act against those behind terrorist activities in India.

But India is aware of the deeper dimensions of the terror challenge in Pakistan. Even if Hafiz Saeed is removed from the scene,that will not be the solution to the problem, the sources said. They were underlining the importance of a basic shift in Pakistans strategy of nurturing anti-India terror groups.

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On the prospect of some anti-terror moves by Pakistan in the short time before the PM travels to Bhutan to attend the summit of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation during April 28-29,the sources said lets wait and see.

The sources also emphasised that India is ready for another round of official contact with Pakistan and recalled the offer of Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to go to Pakistan to meet again with her Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir. Rao and Bashir had met in Delhi at the end of February to discuss the prospects for a resumption of the dialogue. On Raos offer,Pakistan has said neither yes,nor no,the sources added.