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Friday, February 11, 2011

India, Pakistan Agree to Resume Peace Talks - Salt Lake Tribune

India, Pakistan Agree to Resume Peace Talks The Washington Post

First published 1 hour ago
Updated 38 minutes ago Updated Feb 10, 2011 07:19PM New Delhi • India and Pakistan agreed Thursday to resume formal peace talks that were broken off after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The decision could ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and was welcomed by the Obama administration.

The United States has urged the Indian government to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, in part because their rivalry undermines efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. There has been a string of meetings in the past year between officials from both sides, but Thursday’s announcement of a dialogue “on all issues” marks a significant step forward, regional experts said.

It also represents something of a concession by India, which had been pressing Pakistan to bring to justice those responsible for the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, India’s financial hub, when gunmen stormed luxury hotels and a Jewish center, killing 166 people.

Retired Indian Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, who has convened informal talks involving retired military and foreign service officials, as well as opinion leaders, from both countries, said India had realized how hard it was for Pakistan to comply with that demand, given the reluctance of judges there to prosecute suspected militants and the reluctance of witnesses to come forward.

“The conditions India imposed in the aftermath of Mumbai were dictated by domestic political compulsions,” Mehta said. “Now that more than two years have passed, we ourselves have realized the conditions have to be watered down, and that is precisely what we have done.”

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Teen suicide bomber kills 20 at Pakistan army centre - Reuters

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD | Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:27am EST

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A boy in a school uniform blew himself up at a Pakistani army recruitment center on Thursday, killing 20 cadets, officials said, in an attack that challenges government assertions that crackdowns have weakened militants.

Pakistan's army has carried out a series of offensives against al Qaeda-linked Taliban insurgents. But the operations in lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border have failed to break the resolve of Taliban fighters determined to destabilize the U.S.-backed government.

The brazen bombing on Thursday in the northwestern town of Mardan suggested militants are regrouping after a lull in major attacks.

Militant operations in recent months have been mostly sectarian and have not focused on military targets.

"The bomber struck recruits when cadets were busy in their morning training," a military official told Reuters. At least 20 people were wounded.

The boy apparently walked into the compound, officials said.

"It seems the Taliban are still a very potent force because they continue to attack installations, even if they have been quiet for a time," said former general Talat Masood.

"They reassert themselves after a while, and it will be a while before we consider them to be less of a threat."

The Taliban have previously launched bold attacks on the military, Pakistan's most powerful institution.

Last March, two suicide bombers targeting the Pakistani military killed at least 45 people in the city of Lahore, including nine soldiers.

In 2009, Pakistani Taliban militants disguised as soldiers attacked the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi and later took 42 people hostage in a nearby office building.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned Thursday's attack at the Punjab Regiment Center.

"Such cowardly attacks cannot affect the morale of the security agencies and the resolve of the nation to eradicate terrorism," he said in a statement.

Gilani's government faces pressure on several fronts.

It is trying to revive a stagnant economy propped up by an $11 billion Internet Monetary Fund loan which requires politically sensitive reforms.

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India, Pakistan to hold talks on all issues - The Hindu

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India, Pakistan to hold talks on all issues

Sandeep Dikshit The agreement was reached between Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir in Thimphu

Secretary-level talks will be held on eight subjects

Issues include counter-terrorism, Kashmir and Siachen

NEW DELHI: Short of calling it composite dialogue, India and Pakistan have agreed to hold wide-ranging talks on all issues they were discussing before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, according to a simultaneous announcement in both countries.

The agreement was reached during a 90-minute meeting on Sunday between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Thimphu on the sidelines of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting. The details were revealed on Thursday after both sides had briefed their governments.

Secretary-level talks will be held on eight subjects which will be followed by a wrap up round between the Foreign Secretaries. These will be followed by a meeting here between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi by July.

The subjects on which talks will be held are counter-terrorism (progress in Mumbai trial included), humanitarian issues, peace and security, including confidence building measures, Jammu and Kashmir, promotion of friendly exchanges, Siachen, economic issues and the Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project. The issue of Sir Creek will be discussed at the level of Additional Secretaries or Surveyors-General.

Composite dialogue covering these issues was resumed in 2004 after a summit meeting, incidentally, on the sidelines of a SAARC summit in Islamabad. After completion of four rounds and considerable narrowing of differences as well as progress on many issues, it was put on hold by India following the Mumbai attacks.

With the law of diminishing returns having set in on India's insistence of comprehensive action against Pakistan-based perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and India's moral high ground having been eroded by the complicity of its nationals in the Samjhauta Express blasts that killed 42 Pakistanis, the Indian side has been consistently indicating a “new approach” in which “all issues will be discussed.”

Afghanistan

Interestingly, speaking to the media in Thimphu, Ms. Rao had hinted at the talks incorporating a new subject — Afghanistan. “Why not? One of the ideas that came up was that why should we be just stuck with discussing these issues, why cannot we discuss more issues? Why cannot we discuss the situation in our region,” Ms. Rao said when asked whether both sides were prepared to discuss coordination of positions on Afghanistan.

Indian officials refused to get stuck in terminology and maintained that while this was no composite dialogue, bilateral ties were such that all issues had to be discussed. “And when you say all outstanding issues are going to be discussed, you will obviously have to discuss every outstanding issue. Therefore, who discusses the outstanding issues? There are a number of stakeholders. A number of government departments would be concerned. So, it has to be a comprehensive exercise, put it that way,” reasoned Ms. Rao.

The decision to resume dialogue on all subjects following the Rao-Bashir meeting is being termed the second Thimphu thaw. The first took place in April last year when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani directed their Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries to hold talks aimed at reducing the trust deficit between the two countries.

While Mr. Krishna and Mr. Qureshi did meet in Islamabad in July, their concurrence on some issues was lost in a post-interaction acrimony. The two sides then kept minimal contacts until the Foreign Offices began consulting each other regularly over the past few weeks in the run-up to the Thimphu meeting between Ms. Rao and Mr. Bashir.

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U.S. shooter in Pakistan held for 14 more days: court - Reuters

U.S. consulate employee Raymond Davis is escorted by police and officials out of court after facing a judge in Lahore, January 28, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Tariq Saeed

By Mubashir Bokhari

LAHORE | Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:36am EST

LAHORE (Reuters) - A Pakistani court sent a U.S. national, accused of killing two Pakistani men during what he said was an attempted robbery, to jail for 14 more days on Friday, further dragging out a diplomatic row between the troubled allies.

Raymond Davis, a U.S. embassy employee who Washington says has diplomatic immunity, shot and killed two Pakistani men on January 27 in Lahore in what he says was an act of self-defense.

Pakistan has questioned his diplomatic status and has detained Davis since the incident, infuriating the United States. Washington says his continued detention is a violation of international treaties.

"He has been sent to Kot Lakhpat jail on a 14-day judicial remand," Abdul Samad, deputy prosecutor general, told reporters outside the court, referring to the city's main prison. Police will continue their investigation, he said.

No one from the U.S. embassy was available for comment.

Samad said Davis' lawyer, Hassam Qadir, argued that Davis has diplomatic immunity and should be released, and that all proceedings should be closed to the public.

Qadir declined to comment. The next hearing is scheduled for February 25.

After the court hearing, Davis was sent to the jail amid tight security. Punjab's Law Minister, Rana Sanaullah, told Reuters earlier that the "best possible arrangements" would be made for Davis's security.

"All efforts would be made to facilitate him in a better way," he said.

In addition to the two men shot and killed by Davis, a third man was killed when a vehicle from the U.S. consulate, apparently en route to rescue Davis, struck and killed a passer-by.

The case has driven already high-levels of anti-Americanism to new heights in Pakistan, a country the United States considers a crucial ally in the war against militants and vital to ending the war in Afghanistan successfully.

Supporters of the slain men have held protests and burned U.S. flags, reflecting the widespread and virulent anti-American sentiment.

The widow of one of men Davis shot killed herself Sunday night because she said she wanted "blood for blood" and feared Davis would be released.

If it intervenes to seek Davis's release, Pakistan's civilian government will bear the brunt of popular fury at what Pakistanis see as yet another violation of their sovereignty.

But if it allows the Lahore High Court to move ahead with double murder charges, it will infuriate the United States and could even effect a $7.5-billion, five-year civilian aid package.

Earlier this week, Republican Representatives Howard "Buck" McKeon of California and John Kline of Minnesota said they told Pakistani officials on a recent visit that aid could be affected. McKeon is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

(Writing by Chris Allbritton; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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