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Just a week ahead of the meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday that issues relating to the probe into 26/11 attacks will be taken up during the parleys.
Noting that the "specific issues" to be taken up during the discussions were being finalised by the Indian side, he said the ministry would like "pending issues" concerning the 26/11 case and investigation also to be part of it. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will be meeting her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in New Delhi on February 25 with India making it clear that terror will be on top of its agenda. In an interaction with women journalists, the Home Minister also said his ministry would go through the legal process to seek access to Pakistani-American LeT operative David Headley, now lodged in a Chicago jail.
Asked if the Federal Bureau of Investigation was holding back some crucial information from the Indian government as was being suggested by some reports, Chidambaram said, "Well, I don't know. All I can say is FBI has shared vital information. If they are holding back any information, there is no way my knowing that they are holding back any information. "And as far as access to Headley is concerned. Our position remains the same that we will go through legal process to seek access to David headley."
Asked if he favoured the talks between India and Pakistan despite the fact that Islamabad was yet to fulfil the demand of dismantling the terror infrastructure, the Home Minister said it is government's decision of which he is a part. "The government has decided that the foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet on February 25 and I am part of the government.....all of us have decided that the secretaries will meet," he said.
And as the External Affairs Minister has said, "these talks are for talks," Chidambaram said.