SRINAGAR/ISLAMABAD: Tentative peace talks between India and Pakistan have stalled after the Mumbai attacks, India said yesterday, and can only resume if Islamabad takes more decisive action against militant groups on its soil.
The talks, known as the composite dialogue, began in 2004 after the nuclear-armed neighbors almost came to the brink of war two years earlier over an attack on the Indian parliament blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. Those talks were thrown into jeopardy last month by the Mumbai attacks, which India has blamed on Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
“There is a pause in the composite dialogue process because of the attack on Mumbai,” Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the disputed region of Kashmir. The peace process has brought better diplomatic, trade and sporting ties but little progress has been made on major disputes such as the divided Jammu and Kashmir region.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad said Pakistan was committed to the peace process while resigned to a pause in it. “It’s in the larger interests of the whole region,” said the spokesman, Mohammad Sadiq. “If Mukherjee says there’s a pause, then there’s a pause.”
India, the United States and Britain have blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba and other affiliated groups for the Mumbai attacks, saying Pakistan must do more to stamp out militants. Pakistan has promised to cooperate in investigations and has denied any official links to the Mumbai attacks, but has also said anyone caught in Pakistan will be tried in Pakistan. Pakistan has arrested scores of activists from an Islamic charity India says is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, and says it will abide by a UN decision to put the group’s founder Hafiz Saeed on a sanctions list of people and organizations linked to Al-Qaeda.
But a similar Pakistani crackdown on Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad after the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament was widely regarded as a sham. Mukherjee said it would be difficult to resume the peace process with Pakistan unless Islamabad demonstrated a firm resolve to stamp out such groups.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday turned down a British request to question suspects arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Islamabad at the weekend in a bid to calm tensions between the South Asian neighbors.
Pakistan’s rejection of the British request came as US Sen. John Kerry visited India and Pakistan, putting fresh pressure on Islamabad.
Kerry, the next Foreign Relations Committee chairman, met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and several other top officials. A number of US officials have visited India and Pakistan since the attacks in India’s commercial capital last month.
Like Kerry, Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond also arrived Monday for meetings with top Pakistanis, US Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.
About 200 Hindu women protested in Pakistan yesterday against restrictions on an Islamic charity. Muslim Pakistan has a Hindu minority, many of whom are impoverished agricultural workers, but the women in the southern city of Hyderabad rejected what they called pressure by India to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity.
— With input from Azhar Masood
