NEW DELHI, 22 February 2007 — India and Pakistan signed yesterday a deal to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident in a show of cooperation and defiance against terror attacks that killed 68 people from both countries.
The New Delhi signing ceremony took place in public after Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, held an hour and 45 minutes of talks.
“The holding of the joint commission meeting as scheduled is a reaffirmation of the commitment of both India and Pakistan to the dialogue process,” Mukherjee told reporters.
Kasuri agreed that, after the weekend firebombing of a train that runs between India and Pakistan, the talks were “another sign of increasing cooperation” between the two countries. Both sides were examining “cooperation in education, information, IT and telecom, health, agriculture, tourism and science,” he said.
The train blasts “underlined the need of cooperation” in fighting terror, he added.
“You have also witnessed the signing this morning of the agreement between India and Pakistan on reducing the risk of accidents relating to nuclear weapons,” said Mukherjee.
Strongly criticizing the Samjhauta Express blasts, the two ministers reaffirmed their determination to carry forward the peace process and bring perpetrators of the crime to justice. “There are no words strong enough to condemn this act of heinous crime,” Kasuri said. “The government of India will make every effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act,” Mukherjee said.
He, however, ruled out the possibility of a joint (Indo-Pak) investigation into the train blasts. “As per the law of the land, the investigation has to be carried out by India,” Mukherjee said.
“Whatever information will be available ... will be shared with the Pakistani authorities,” at a meeting of an India-Pakistan anti-terror panel starting March 6, he said.
The two sides also reviewed the progress of the dialogue process. “The joint survey of Sir Creek, a marshy area along the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat, is progressing smoothly,” Mukherjee said. Both sides have agreed to appoint retired judges to secure the release of prisoners, Kasuri said.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a hard-line Kashmiri leader dismissed the talks as an exercise in futility. “The peace process exists only on paper. Security forces in Kashmir have been given unlimited powers, we want peace but we are being terrorized,” he said.
The two sides also agreed to hold fresh talks on withdrawing troops from a strategic glacier in Kashmir that is billed as the world’s highest battlefield. “We have both agreed that the directors general of military operations will meet. We have suggested some dates,” Kasuri told reporters.
