We’ll probe Indian embassy bombing, Pak PM tells Manmohan

“The Prime Minister Singh was relatively frank in expressing his concerns about recent incidents which have had an impact on the relationship and the prospects of the dialogue,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said after the meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit.

While talking about the ‘recent incidents’, Singh specifically told Gilani about the July 7 Kabul embassy attack regarding which there is evidence of involvement of Pakistan’s ISI. Singh also referred to violation of ceasefire by Pakistani forces and increased infiltration across the LoC.

Responding to Singh’s concerns, Gilani said he would conduct an ‘independent investigation’ into the Kabul attack, Menon said.

Gilani told Singh that he will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Colombo on Sunday to discuss the Kabul attack.

The decision to hold an inquiry into the Kabul embassy attack assumes significance as the Afghan government, as also India and the US, have blamed Pakistan’s ISI for the strike in which 60 people, including four Indians, were killed.

Afghanistan, India and the US have intelligence inputs and intercepts on the basis of which they have reached the conclusion about ISI role.

Assuring that he would ‘look into the matter’, Gilani told Singh that he would ‘get to the root of it’, Menon said.

The Pakistan Prime Minister also asked if India had any information that it could share with Pakistan with regard to the Kabul incident.

Singh also voiced concern over the recent incidents of ceasefire violations and increased infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

Gilani said he would also look into the other issues raised as he emphasised that the political parties in Pakistan, across the board, want improvement of relations with India.

Singh said this is what he had been working on for the last four years but ‘the recent events had made that difficult and these events had to be addressed’.

The string of blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad also came up for mention as ‘part of general deterioration of situation’. However, since these terror attacks are still under investigation, India refrained from pointing fingers at Pakistan.

On ceasefire, Gilani told Singh that Pakistan considers it as the ‘most important confidence building measure’ between the two countries and that ‘every attempt would be made to maintain it in future’, Menon said.

“It was a candid and open conversation between two people who wanted to see a way forward in the situation,” the Foreign Secretary said giving a sense of the 30-minute meeting between Singh and Gilani.

“There was a detailed exchange of views on how we could deal with these recent events and how we could move this relationship forward,” Menon said.

Asked what India would expect Pakistan to do, Menon said there should be no more attacks like that on Kabul embassy and Pakistan would have to maintain the ceasefire and infiltration would have to cease.

Talking to media persons separately, Gilani said Pakistan wants good relations with India as well as Afghanistan and was ready to discuss all issues.

Favouring increased frequency of talks between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, he said it would help resolve whatever issues that come up.

Asked about the Kashmir issue, the Pakistan Prime Minister said the two countries were discussing it with an aim of resolving it.