New Delhi, March 28
Some 28 months after the ghastly November 2008 Mumbai attacks, India and Pakistan today re-started the dialogue process at the secretary-level at a conference hall that was christened “Friendship Room”. The venue was a grand five-star hotel in South Delhi where and the home secretaries of India and Pakistan, GK Pillai and Chaudhary Qamar Zaman, respectively, accompanied by a bevy of officials and top security officers started the two-day talks on a wide range of issues.

Expectedly, the five-hour session on the first day of the dialogue centred around the Mumbai attacks. It was after these attacks that the dialogue was suspended in 2008. Emerging from the meeting both sides mouthed one-liners about being “positive” and termed the progress as going “in the right direction”. A joint statement is expected tomorrow. The Pakistan Home Secretary is slated to fly out to Agra after the talks to visit the iconic Taj Mahal once the talks are over.

Sources said India asked Pakistan for voice samples of the suspected Mumbai terror attack plotters believed to be in Pakistan. The neighbouring country will have to challenge a court ruling that prevented it from sharing voice samples of those being prosecuted for the attacks.

India has been demanding voice samples of seven Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists - including top leader Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Abu al-Qama and Zarar Shah - suspected to have masterminded the Mumbai carnage that killed 166 people. Indian investigators want to match the voice samples with taped telephone calls between the 10 terrorists who unleashed the Mumbai mayhem and their Pakistani handlers. “Talks were extremely positive. Progress was made in certain direction and in the right direction,” Indian Home Secretary G K Pillai told reporters at the end of the first day. Last July, Pakistan had blamed Pillai for the collapse of the Indo-Pak talks when the foreign ministers of the two countries had met in Islamabad.

Zaman, who is leading a 12-member delegation, also said talks were "very positive". “We have another day for the talks to follow through”, he said while adding that he would not go into the specifics. “But I can tell you with good amount of certainty that its been a very positive attitude displayed on both sides and I am really confident about tomorrow's proceedings also,” Zaman said.