Even after conveying its repeated reluctance for talks to Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at Yekaterinburg (Russia) and later with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at Sharm el-Sheikh.
In the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack, India took a clear stand that unless and until Pakistan does not dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on its soil and hand over the conspirators of the Mumbai attack to India, or prosecute them in Pakistan, India will not hold composite dialogue with the same.
Dialogue Process
The process of dialogue with Pakistan was set in after the Lahore bus journey by Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was the prime minister then, and the meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was arranged, but the Musharraf-sponsored Kargil conflict and the army camp in Pakistan dashed all hopes toward this end. Later, the Agra Summit failed and the process of dialogue remained suspended for a long time.
Finally, the talk process could be resumed during the term of Vajpayee as prime minister. After the attack on the Indian Parliament, roads, rail, and air links with Pakistan could be restored. Later, during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's term, the bus service and trade between the two Kashmirs resumed.
Nevertheless, Pakistan from the very beginning stuck to its wont of harping on Kashmir. From the times of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his daughter Benazir Bhutto, later Musharraf and currently Pakistani leaders persisted with their agenda of harping on the Kashmir issue. Now, under the US pressure, the New Delhi talks at the foreign secretary-level began in the midst of mutual apprehensions and with their respective stands.
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna maintains that terrorism should be the main issue in the India-Pakistan dialogue. It is a clear stand of the Indian Government that if improvement is to be brought about in the India-Pakistan relations, then there should be an atmosphere free of terror between the countries. However, Pakistan has been constantly trying to avoid the terrorism issue in the dialogue process.
Latest Talks Failed
The visiting Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on 24 February declined to hand over the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed, to India, saying that it is futile to link the Hafiz Mohammad Saeed issue with the dialogue process. Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao raised the terrorism issue at the talks with Salman Bashir and demanded the arrest of Sayeed because India has been the victims of terrorism attacks from the Pakistani side since a long time. India also entrusted to Pakistan a dossier of the list of 40 terrorists, but whether Pakistan would make any comment on it, is doubtful.
In connection with the Mumbai attack, Pakistan also admitted in its various documents that the attack was sponsored and launched from Pakistan. The links of the recent explosion at Pune are connected with terrorist kingpins based in Karachi. Not only that Pakistani infiltration is accelerating in Jammu and Kashmir and terrorist attacks are also increasing.
Violating Cease-Fire
In an encounter with militants at Sopore on 24 February, two soldiers and a captain of the Indian Army were killed. The same day, Pakistani troops violated the cease-fire and opened heavy firing in the Samba sector in which one Border Security Force personnel was wounded. Earlier, Taliban in Pakistan beheaded two Sikhs in the tribal area and abducted another Sikh.
A wave of terror has spread among Sikhs living in Pakistan in the wake of such incidents. It is astonishing that whenever India-Pakistan talks are held or take place, firing by Pakistani troops at the border has increased.
Zardari has once again spoken in terms of raising the Kashmir issue in the fresh India-Pakistan dialogue, and told Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that the Pakistani Army was strong enough to face the Indian challenge.
Whenever, any Pakistan leader or bureaucrat visits India, Hurriyat leaders arrive in Delhi to meet him. Hurriyat leader Ali Shah Gilani met Salman Bashir and asked him to raise the Kashmir issue as the main issue instead of river water issue at the renewed India-Pakistan talks.
Neglecting Terror Issue
Keeping in view all this, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram was not optimistic about the talks at the secretary level. The truth is Pakistan is unwilling to realize that terrorism is dangerous for both countries. Although a democratic order exists in that country at present, the fact remains that it cannot do anything without the consent of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the military. These two are the obstacles in the India-Pakistan relations.
This time around, differences cropped up between the two sides. Therefore, no joint statement was issued. Instead, Pakistan raised the Baluchistan issue and things remained unchanged on the whole, and the position is, "they came, held talks, and left."
No comments:
Post a Comment