26/11 closed door for talks on Kashmir: US envoy

The Mumbai terror attacks, which were carried out by the Pakistan-based LeT terror outfit, closed the door for any Indo-Pak discussions on Kashmir, according to a top American diplomat.

The remarks by the then American ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, were part of a cable dated February 4, 2009, which she wrote for US special envoy for Af-Pak region, Richard Holbrook, ahead of his maiden trip to Pakistan in his new capacity, following which he also visited India and Afghanistan, showed the classified US documents released by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

“Although the conventional wisdom says that Mumbai closed the door on Kashmir discussions, there is no doubt that Pakistan believes tackling the Kashmir issue remains the key to regional security,” Patterson wrote in the cable.

Govt to react only after complete facts come out
Treading cautiously on the Wikileaks issue, the government today said it would react only after complete facts come out.

“Let the facts come out, then we will react,” External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told reporters outside Parliament House.

He was asked to comment on the cable communication between the US Embassy here and Washington leaked by WikiLeaks.

Krishna's deputy in the Ministry, Preneet Kaur, had recently said, “This (wikileaks issue) is a very sensitive issue. We have good bilateral relations (with the US) and they had already warned us. So, I think it is not the right time to comment on it.”