Determined to do some tough talk with Pakistan, India has decided to take up concerns over a renewed push to cross-border infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the backdrop of forthcoming elections in the state.
New Delhi is also set to reiterate its strong protest over the recent attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in which two Indian diplomats were killed and tell Islamabad bluntly that such incidents will be taken as a direct attack on India?s sovereignty. National security advisor MK Narayanan had publicly accused Pakistan of instigating the Kabul attack.
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee will cover these issues when he meets his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoon Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the Saarc foreign ministers meet on Thursday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too will be engaging his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani when they meet during the summit on Friday. The last round of talks between India and Pakistan had ended with New Delhi saying that the composite dialogue process was under stress.
India?s concerns especially arise out of apprehensions that Pakistan may try to get adventurous in the light of assembly elections in J&K. The state is likely to witness elections in October and New Delhi will be keen to ensure that the poll process be held peacefully and it be accorded due credibility by the international community.
New Delhi is worried, however, that infiltration figures have suddenly gone up to pre-ceasefire days, not seen before in the last five years. In fact, the latest violation of the ceasefire on Monday is also being viewed in the context of Pakistan?s attempt to sneak in armed guerillas into J&K. The intrusions by Pakistani soldiers are usually tactics to divert attention of Indian troops so that infiltrators can cross over in the confusion. Security sources maintain that Pakistani troops had similarly opened indiscriminate firing on Indian posts on July 10 in the Kishna Ghati area, along the LoC in Poonch, as Indian troops were engaged in preventing a major infiltration bid by a group of eight intruders.
India?s case to pin the blame on Pakistan received a fillip with US presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Monday calling Pakistani funding of the Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir as ??counterproductive??. Obama, who had earlier expressed his support for hot pursuit into Pakistan, said in a newspaper interview that Islamabad has historically helped and funded the Mujahideen in the hope that it would help it in J&K.