Anti-terror panel in focus at India-Pakistan talks
Source: Reuters
(Adds news conference, changes byline) By Kamil Zaheer NEW DELHI, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Top diplomats from India and Pakistan held what they described as positive talks on Tuesday, their first dialogue in nearly a year in a bid to revive a peace process halted by deadly train bombings in Mumbai in July. The two-day talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours are expected to set up a joint system to combat terrorism and also push new moves to build trust. They come a few months after Indian and Pakistani leaders agreed to resume negotiations after meeting on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in September. Both sides described the first day of discussions between Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz Mohammad Khan, as "very constructive and positive". "A considerable amount of time was spent discussing terrorism," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told a news conference. The two teams also reviewed a series of measures to build trust, such as cross-border transport links, bilateral trade, issues relating to fishermen and civilian prisoners in each other's custody, security and the Kashmir dispute, he said. Khan also called on Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee who stressed "why it was important that both sides fight the menace of terrorism jointly", Sarna said. India had suspended the dialogue with Pakistan after blaming Pakistan's spy agency and an Islamist militant group based there for the Mumbai bombings that killed 186 people. Islamabad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba group have denied links to the blast. KASHMIR VIOLENCE Many Indian analysts have already written off the joint terrorism panel, saying they did not expect Pakistan to act against its own spy agency which New Delhi has long blamed for subversive acts across the country. India and Pakistan began peace talks in 2004 after coming close to what would have been their fourth war. The talks have made slow progress, particularly over Kashmir, and have been undermined by militant attacks in the Himalayan region and across India, although Indian officials say overall levels of violence in Kashmir have fallen. The resumption of talks was marked by a sudden spurt in violence in Kashmir, which both rule in parts but claim in full. Ten civilians and nine policemen were wounded on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside a security camp in the heart of Srinagar, the main city of Kashmir. A landmine blast earlier in the day wounded at least eight people, including four soldiers, in Baramulla town, police said. Late on Monday, two Indian soldiers and one Islamist militant were killed and three troops wounded in a gunbattle in the Jammu region, they said. New Delhi says Islamabad has not done enough to curb anti-India militants based in Pakistan. Islamabad says separatist violence would cease when the Kashmir dispute is settled. The New Delhi talks are also expected to discuss ending a stand-off over the Siachen glacier in Kashmir. But progress is unlikely as the Indian army is unwilling to withdraw troops from what is the world's highest battleground. "If we vacate the glacier, it will weaken our position," Brigadier Om Prakash, the commander of an Indian army unit in Siachen, told the Press Trust of India news agency. (Additional reporting by Ashok Pahalwan in Jammu and Sheikh Mushtaq in Srinagar)
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