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India ready to hold another FS-level meet with Pak

April 03, 2010 15:35 IST

After the ice-breaking foreign secretary-level talks on February 25, India has conveyed to Pakistan its willingness to hold the second round of parleys, but is yet to get any response from its neighbour.

India also has not heard anything from Pakistan on the three dossiers given to Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir by her Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao during the FS-level talks. The dossiers contained the names of the 34 Pakistani terrorists wanted in India, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief Hafiz Saeed, with a demand for handing them over and other effective actions.

The February 25 talks held in Delhi were an ice-breaker after the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, when the dialogue process was put on hold by India as terrorists from Pakistan planned and carried out the strike that left 166 people dead.

The initiative for those talks was taken by India as it intended to discuss the 'core issue' of terrorism. India is still not satisfied by Pakistan's actions with regard to ending terrorism, but New Delhi has conveyed that the channels of communication are open from the Indian side.

At the day-long talks between Rao and Bashir on February 25, the two sides noted the 'trust deficit' in the ties and decided to 'remain in touch and continue the endeavour to restore trust'. India had said that the trust had been 'erased' by the Mumbai terror attacks.

With regard to 26/11, India 'acknowledged' that Pakistan had taken certain steps to bring the perpetrators to justice, but pointed out that these did not go far enough to unravel the full conspiracy behind the Mumbai terror attack and to award exemplary punishment to all culprits.

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