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India responds to Pak dossiers on 26/11
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 18
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will travel to Islamabad next week for talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on June 24 and set the stage for visits by Home Minister P Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna to the neighbouring country. While Chidambaram is scheduled to represent India at the SAARC Interior Ministers’ meeting on June 26, Krishna will visit Islamabad for talks with his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on July 15 aimed at moving forward the dialogue process.

An External Affairs Ministry announcement said Nirupama would visit the Pakistani capital at the invitation of Bashir, thus becoming the first top foreign office official to visit Islamabad since the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The upcoming meetings between India and Pakistan are part of an understanding between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Thimphu in April when they decided to take steps to bridge the “trust deficit” between the two nations.

Ahead of the upcoming talks, India sought to create a congenial atmosphere by giving to Pakistan its formal response to the queries raised by Islamabad in the six dossiers it handed over to New Delhi in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

YK Sinha, Joint Secretary in-charge of Pakistan in the MEA, handed over to Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner Riffat Masood “a set of responses” to the six dossiers given by Pakistan on April 25. Pakistan High Commission sources said they were sending the documents to Islamabad for examination by experts.

Pakistan had handed over the six dossiers to India regarding developments in the Mumbai attacks probe and sought the extradition of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the attacks, and Fahim Ansari, an Indian accused of conducting recce of places targeted by the Mumbai attackers.

India has made it clear that the meeting between the two top diplomats would be exploratory in nature, aimed at creating the right atmosphere for removing the “trust deficit” and undertaking a broad dialogue later. However, the Pakistani side is bracing itself for raising issues like Kashmir and Balochistan. Nirupama’s trip will be followed by a visit by Home Secretary GK Pillai for SAARC Home Secretaries meeting ahead of the Interior Ministers’ conference at which Chidambaram will lead the Indian side.