HOME       Contact Us      Hire Us       Domestic Airlines        Railway Enquiry     Railway Booking     Hotels Abroad
November 23, 2009

No talks with Pakistan planned in Trinidad

     Washington: The leaderships of India and Pakistan don't plan to have talks on bilateral issues on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad later in the week, said a source. According to the source, New Delhi has not received a request for a meeting nor is it aware about who is attending the meeting from the Pakistani side. It is widely believed that neither Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari nor Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are coming If a meeting does take place it will be an "aside" said the source. The source also said that no movement or response has taken place on the seventh dossier that India has given with regard to evidence on the 26/11 attacks that took place in Mumbai last year. The source said that there was also no forward movement on legal proceedings against Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafeez Saeed who "is still roaming around like a free range chicken". The Prime Ministers' of the two countries have not met since the summit interaction at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh. However, the Foreign Ministers of the two countries - S.M. Krishna and Shah Mehmood Qureshi - have met a couple of times in the four months since, most recently in New York (on the sidelines of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly) and in Kabul (during the second presidential inauguration of Hamid Karzai). During these rare meetings abroad, India has been consistent in demanding that Pakistan must act against the perpetrators of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai that claimed nearly 170 lives. Pakistan, however, has responded that the evidence provided by India so far has not been up to scratch, yet it is doing its bit in taking the probe on suspects forward as per the law of the land. Ahead of his departure for the United States, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told CNN's GPS program that Pakistan isn't doing enough to prosecute the terrorists involved in the attack on Mumbai a year ago, an attack that has led to a suspension of the composite dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbors. "The conspiracy took place in Pakistan. A friendly Pakistan, determined to tackle terrorism, would take the case to its logical conclusion. That is not happening," Dr. Singh said. "It is our feeling that Pakistan has not done enough," Singh told CNN, adding that the group's founder, cleric Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is"roaming around freely." New Delhi says progress in stalled peace talks depends on Pakistan ensuring that its territory isn't used for terrorist activities. The composite dialogue process, which began in 2003, had led to increased cultural, transport and sporting links between the countries, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. The divided Himalayan territory is claimed in full by both nations. Singh told CNN that while "there can be no redrawing of borders," India and Pakistan can "work together to ensure that these are borders of peace", and that both can avail of opportunities to facilitate and encourage greater people-to-people contact. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has stressed the need for talks to resume, but simultaneously accuses India of fueling terrorism in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan and in southern Baluchistan province. The fact is that Islamabad is still nowhere close to nailing the men who were involved in the Mumbai mayhem of 2008. The Indian Government's seventh dossier contains statements of witnesses, including the Magistrate before whom Ajmal Amir Kasav confessed his guilt, as also the deposition of FBI officers who confirmed that Pakistani handlers were directing the attackers. Home Minister P Chidambaram has called the endless process of proofsubmissions by India and Pakistan's subsequent denials "tiresome". Pakistan's empty promises have forced Prime Minister Singh to bluntly state that any progress on bilateral talks is unlikely without progress on the 26/11 terror trial front. An increasingly impatient New Delhi hopes the Pakistan Government will finally act on the information provided.
More Travel News Headlines

Custom Search


Home    Contact Us
NOTE:  Free contributions of articles and reports may be sent to indiatraveltimes@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER