Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Karnataka
|
Expect no grand gestures at India-Pak Home Ministers meeting | If I was Hafiz Saeed, I wouldn't be too worried a man today. India will not make any grand demand on Pakistan to hand him over and neither will Pakistan promise to prosecute the Amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
Indian officials have said not to expect any bold decisions or announcements regarding
any kind of sharing of terror related information. Grand gestures are only made
when there is a basic sharing of information and clarity of purpose and intent
said a source. At present there is too much of suspicion and mistrust, which will
have to be dispelled before any ambitious step is embarked upon, said the official.
Indian officials who prepared the initial background work for the historic visit
of the Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram to Islamabad said that the Indian side
was seeing the bilateral meeting as an opportunity to put across its point of
view. India has asked for the voice samples of three Pakistanis including Hafiz
Saeed. This would prove once and for all the involvement of the so-called non-state
actors (as Pakistan calls them) in plotting; planning and executing the Mumbai
terror attacks of 26/11. So far as the Pakistani establishment's plea has been
that the evidence provided by India has been "literature" and that Pakistani courts
have acquitted the accused because the evidence against them is not sufficient.
The Indian official said today that getting the voice samples of the three people
is necessary for Pakistani law enforcing authorities if they are honest in their
intent. The Dawn also reports "Indian officials also appeared to have reconciled
with Pakistan's difficulties in confining Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed because
of superior courts' directives." Indian officials who spoke to the media today
ahead of the Home Minister's interaction with Pakistan Interior Minister also
seemed to suggest that India has all but accepted that the internal systems in
Pakistan have collapsed and there is little hope in harping about Hafiz Saeed
or Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi. Quoting Pakistani sources the Indian official said that
320 persons, including 120 terrorists have been released following court orders
in 2010-11. India probably has now come to the conclusion that there is no point
in fixating on Saeed, Lakhvi and the 12 or more others. Not to mention Dawood
Ibrahim. The demand to prosecute them still stands but to put India-Pakistan talks
on hold till such a time that Saeed is convicted for Mumbai attacks serves no
purpose. Saeed and Lakhvi are too important for Pakistani security agencies to
allow them to agree to hand them over to India or even try them in their own country.
They know too much and matter too much to some very high-ranking officials in
Rawalpindi. Commenting on the almost farcical level of these arrests and acquittals
an Indian official said, nobody even knows whether the person rotting in jail
is actually Lashkar commander Lakhvi. A man could easily have been paid to say
he is Lakhvi and spend a few months in jail while the real Lakhvi is free to roam
around the country plotting, planning and executing terror attacks. The suspicion
and distrust is so great between the Indian and Pakistani sides that there seems
to be little chance of any real information sharing in the coming weeks on cross
border terrorism. India realizes that there are limitations to what the Gilani
administration can deliver; so when Pakistan promises the moon, i.e act on 26/11
perpetrators, it means little. However, to belittle the other side would serve
no purpose. Engagement is necessary. That is what India has decided. And a sustained
engagement with baby steps. Ambitious moves to start hot lines between Chiefs
or RAW (India's external intelligence agency) and ISI (Pakistan's all encompassing
agency) and institutionalized cooperation between Intelligence Bureaus of India
and Pakistan will remain just a matter of conjecture and rumours. |
|
|
|
|
|