India-Pak talks on course despite terror attack

Says talks with Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif will still be held

Despite a horrific attack on India by Pakistani militants that cost 12 Indian lives, the prime ministers of both countries resolved that talks would go on as scheduled on 29 September in New York.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde made the bald announcement that the killers – three – had infiltrated into India earlier from across the border.

They took a three-wheeler auto rickshaw, entered a police station in Kathua, gunned down everyone in sight taking five lives, then forced a driver of an army truck out of the vehicle and drove to Samba inside an army camp where they killed three soldiers and a Lieutenant Colonel as he was coming out of the mess.

They were obviously on a fedayeen mission because they then separated and went on firing even as the army deployed a helicopter to hunt them down. After several hours of firing on both sides, they were killed by the Army: but not before causing grievous damage.

The Indian and Pakistani foreign offices were obviously in touch with each other because India reacted first, with the PM describing it as an attack on peace and declaring that those who had done this did not want talks but their plan would not succeed; and the Pakistan government condemning the attack unequivocally.

A previously unknown organisation, the Shohada Brigade, has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a call to PTI, the organisation claimed the militants were locals. However, the Home Ministry says they were infiltrators.

The nationality of the attackers is important because in the past Pakistan has always claimed that it is indian Muslims, who, outraged at the way Kashmiris are treated by India, carry out such attacks.

India has always believed that persons are sent from across the border to destabilise India.

This is not the first time such an attack has taken place on the eve of important summit-level talks between India and Pakistan.

Although the last meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries was in 2010 on the sidelines of a SAARC summit in Thimphu where they even took a stroll together, it was only much later that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the Pakistan national assembly what they discussed during the stroll: "When I walked with Manmohan Singh, he told me that he trusts me. He said that you say that the culprits of the Mumbai incident will be brought to justice and we trust you."

Gilani further told the National Assembly: “I told Prime Minister Singh Pakistan is serious about prosecuting perpetrators of 26/11 attacks and an effort is being made to bring the trial to a speedy conclusion. Pakistan will not allow Pakistan territory to be used for terrorist activities directed against India.”

That this promise made by the Pakistan Prime Minister was broken yet again, was a fact emphasised by BJP President

Rajnath Singh who said talks with Pakistan should be discontinued because the leaders didn’t mean what they said. However, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was more circumspect, confining himself to condeming the attack and sympathising with those who had died or were injured.

Initially, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was circumspect, confining himself to condeming the attack and sympathising with those who had died or were injured.But later, at a public meeting in Tiruchirapally, Modi criticised the central government in bitter terms for talking to Pakistan despite the attack. 

"The youth of Trichy are telling you this. I want to ask, you and I want you to answer -- our soldiers are being killed, innocents are being killed, terror troubles us.

 

"Should the PM show such haste to meet Pakistani leaders? Every citizen asks, are we so weak that our neighbours can do what they want and we keep our eyes shut, our mouths locked?

 

"The Government in Delhi eats chicken biryani with the Pakistan Prime Minister in name of protocol," Modi said in his speech.

The PM did not celebrate his 81st birthday today in the aftermath of the two attacks that left 12 dead.

Congress MP Manishankar Aiyar had first used the phrase 'uninterrupted and uninterruptible' for the desirable state of India-Pakistan relations. It would appear that this description of the relationship has been achieved.

Recent India Pakistan meetings

Feb 26, 2009: Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir meet on the sidelines of the SAARC ministerial meeting in Colombo.

June 16, 2009: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

June 26, 2009: Meeting between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the G8 outreach meeting in Trieste, Italy.

July 16, 2009: Manmmohan Singh meets Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh -- the meeting that led to a controversial joint declaration delinking the composite dialogue process from Pakistan's action against terror and including a reference to Balochistan.

Sep 27, 2009: Foreign secretaries Rao and Bashir meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

April 29, 2010: The two prime ministers -- Manmmohan Singh and Gilani -- meet on the sidelines of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu.

July 16, 2010: Krishna and Qureshi meet in Islamabad. But the talks ended in bitterness over Pakistan raking up the Kashmir issue and India insisting that Pakistan give a time frame for completing trial of the Mumbai attack.

Feb 6, 2011: Foreign secretaries Rao and Bashir met on the sidelines of a SAARC conference in Thimpu.

March 27, 2011: Manmohan Singh and Gilani meet on the sidelines of a cricket world cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan in the Punjab city of Mohali.

July 26, 2011: Pakistan's first woman foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar visits India and holds talks with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna in Delhi.

Nov 10, 2011: Manmohan Singh meets Gilani in the Addu atoll of Maldives, the venue of a SAARC summit. They jointly declare to open a new chapter in the history of India-Pakistan relations.

Feb 13, 2012: India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma visits Pakistan on a three-day trip, first by an Indian trade minister in three decades.

March 27, 2012: The two prime ministers meet on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in an unscheduled informal meeting in the South Korean capital Seoul.

April 8, 2012: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari comes to India on a day-long private visit to offer prayers at the Ajmer dargah and hold talks with Manmohan Singh