Islamabad talks

There are mixed impressions of success and stalemate about the first day of talks between the Home Secretaries of India and Pakistan. As was expected, Indian side took up the case of speedy prosecution of the perpetrators’ of Mumbai carnage and handing over to India the persons against whom India has irrefutable proof of their involvement in terrorist attacks in India. Indian side observed that the prosecution of Hafiz Saeed as one of the architects of Mumbai attack of 2008 was tardy despite dependable proof provided by India. The delegation has provided further evidence and expects Pakistani Government to pass it on to the court for speeding up the prosecution. But Pakistani delegation has stuck to its traditional stand of saying that the proof provided by India is not sufficient to prosecute Hafiz Saeed.
The fact of the matter is that Hafiz Saeed, the originator of powerful Pakistani jihadi movement called Lashkar-e-Toiba is too powerful for the civilian government of Pakistan to handle. Since he has close links with the Pakistan Army and ISI and was also known to be close to late Osama and his organization Al Qaeda, the civilian government of Islamabad is at crossroads about what to do with him. The Punjab High Court has acquitted him of all charges saying that there was no substantial evidence to prove that he was involved in any terrorist activities and that his organization was only a charitable one catering to the needs of the destitute. This has further complicated the matter of prosecuting him for other crimes. But the fact is that recently the US announced a prize of ten million dollars on his head for one who gives concrete proof of his involvement in terrorist activities.
From the tone and tenor of Pakistani Government and the delegation led by her Interior Secretary, there is very little expectation that any headway will be made in regard to the matter of handing over to India of suspected persons including Dawood Ibrahim against whom cases are pending in Indian coruats and Pakistan is providing him shelter somewhere in that country. With this attitude of Pakistan towards known terrorists, it is difficult to believe that Islamabad is really interested in cooperating with the Indian Government to check terrorism and find out ways and means of uprooting it. Therefore the claim of Pakistan that it is also a victim of terrorism is preposterous. As a matter of fact, Pakistan is sponsoring and abetting terror unmindful of the fact that it has turned its Frankenstein. Hafiz Saeed has been openly propagating jihad against India. He has been claiming to have a militia of nearly two hundred thousand trained volunteers at his disposal and is proud to announce that this militia would be the vanguard of Pakistan army whenever there is a war between the two countries. In such a situation one should have no reason to be optimistic about the results of the secretary level meeting now in progress in Islamabad?
Even in the case of easing the visa regime there are some contradictory reports from what has appeared in sections of Pakistani press. Though it was believed that the two secretaries might come closer to signing the new visa regime on which both have worked in the past yet Pakistani cabinet is reported not to have approved it. Others say that the issue of new visa regime was not at all brought on the agenda for the cabinet meeting held recently. However Indian side seems somewhat assured that the new regime would go through. Actually there is not much in the revised regime that would make any side raise fingers on its usefulness. It essentially deals with providing some easement to the senior citizens so that they have not to go through many hassles. Of course the new regime will add many more cities in each country to the existing list of countries which the nationals of India or Pakistan can visit during their visit.
However in one sense the talks could be considered more useful and that is confidence building measures. Regular interaction between the officials and leaders of the two countries can steadily built confidence between the two and this has to be accepted as a long drawn process. The crucial part of present talks is of expanding interaction, trade, tourism and cultural exchanges between two parts of the divided State of Jammu and Kashmir. In all probability these matters will come up in the second day’s parleys and the result will be known very soon. Needless to remind that before leaving for Islamabad, the Indian Home Secretary paid a visit to Jammu and Kashmir, held talks with the leadership and administrative establishment of the State and also visited the two cross-border trade sites. If there is any progress on this count, it would be a good news and let us hope for it.

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