Thaindian News

Thimphu, April 26 (IANS) With Pakistan handing six dossiers to India on its probe into 26/11, a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani here seems almost certain, informed sources said Monday.
If they meet, it will be their first formal interaction since their controversial Sharm el-Sheikh talks of 2009 that delinked Pakistan’s action against anti-India terror groups from the composite dialogue process and included the first-ever reference to Balochistan in any India-Pakistan joint statement.

Manmohan Singh and Gilani exchanged pleasantries on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington early this month but no formal talks were held.

In Thimphu, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Monday said a bilateral meeting between the prime ministers could not be ruled out and stressed that all issues would be discussed if they met.

“I am not ruling it out,” Krishna said, when asked if a meeting would take place.

“Let’s wait and watch, how things are going to work out,” he said. “All bilateral issues between India and Pakistan will be discussed as and when the prime ministers meet,” said the Indian minister, who arrived here Monday for the SAARC ministerial meeting.

Islamabad chose to be cautious, but hinted that a meeting was on the way. While Gilani said a meeting had not been planned, the foreign office maintained it was possible.

Addressing reporters in Islamabad before leaving for the Bhutanese capital, Gilani said no meeting had been scheduled with Manmohan Singh during the April 28-29 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit.

However, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said the two prime ministers were expected to meet in Thimphu.

Basit added that the schedule for the meeting had not been finalised. He maintained that the meeting would have nothing to do with the 26/11 Mumbai attack that India has blamed on Pakistani terrorists.

He said Pakistan always wanted resumption of talks with India, adding that regional security would top the agenda if the two prime ministers met.

Basit added that Pakistan wanted a resolution of the Kashmir issue at the earliest.

It’s not clear what the scope of the meeting would be, but it’s likely to cover all issues, including India’s core concerns over cross-border terror, swift punishment for 26/11 attackers and the Kashmir dispute that has dragged on for decades.

But not many are expecting a breakthrough in the form of the resumption of the composite dialogue, stalled since the Mumbai attack that left 166 Indians and foreigners dead.

“One can’t predict what the two leaders will talk or what will be the outcome,” an informed source said in New Delhi.

If the talks are held, Pakistan is sure to raise issues related to the Indus water sharing and a hydroelectric Kishanganga project over which Islamabad has served a notice in the International Court of Arbitration.

At the Feb 25 foreign secretary-level talks, India made it clear that it saw the water issue as a diversionary ploy by Islamabad to distract attention from the lack of a swift trial of 26/11 accused.

India will look for more tangible action by Pakistan to dismantle the terror infrastructure and penalise anti-India ideologues like Hafiz Saeed, founder of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the suspect mastermind of the Mumbai slaughter.

Pakistan set the ball rolling for a bilateral meeting by giving India six dossiers Sunday night that includes a request for access to Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist who is being tried in a Mumbai court for his role in the November 2008 carnage.

Pakistan has also requested that India turn over Fahim Ansari, an Indian national, who helped the attackers so that it can complete its own trial of seven suspects linked to the assault

Pakistan’s dossiers contain some evidence of action taken by Islamabad against those responsible for the Mumbai siege, said the sources.