Sharm El-Sheikh, July 15: India and Pakistan seemed set to take a small but incremental step in their engagement following the hit the relationship had taken in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani indicating to the NAM summit that the two countries were making progress in resolving their differences.
Gilani?s comments came before the second meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two countries, due later today, and his own meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set for Thursday.
Pakistani sources indicated that they would try hard to convince the Indian side that Islamabad was indeed serious about cracking down on terror groups blamed for attacks in India but this could neither be achieved overnight nor done with New Delhi holding a gun to its head.
Foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir met for 90 minutes late last night and sources described the meeting as ?good and detailed?. However, the meeting remained inconclusive and the two diplomats agreed to meet again later today.
The sources also said that there was a possibility of Singh and Gilani jointly addressing the media after their meeting on Thursday, or at least issuing a joint statement signaling that there was a coming closer of views. Some on the Pakistani side, however, seemed to interpret this as an attempt by India to make it up to Pakistan for the inadvertent snub by Singh to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Russia, last month.
Singh, in his speech at the summit, referred to terrorism but without naming Pakistan or the Mumbai attack. ?In recent years, terrorist groups have become more sophisticated, more organised and more daring. Terrorists and those who aid and abet them must be brought to justice. The infrastructure of terrorism must be dismantled and there should be no safe havens for terrorists because they do not represent any cause, group or religion,? he said.
India suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan after the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and stepped up pressure to act against the Lashkar-e-Toiba after the unprecedented attack on Mumbai on November 26. Although Pakistan has arrested some Lashkar operatives in Pakistan, the process suffered a setback after Pakistan?s Supreme Court freed Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed from jail.
Last week, Pakistan gave India a 36-page dossier on the action it has taken so far in connection with the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack and sought some clarifications and fresh documents. India is yet to arrive on a conclusion on the dossier as it needs to be studied.