By IANS,
New Delhi : Even as it launched a new round of dialogue with its neighbour, India Monday said there were “elements in Pakistan” behind the July 7 terror attack on the Indian mission in Kabul and underlined that the peace process has been “under strain” due to such incidents.
Pakistan denied any hand in the attack and asked India to provide “information” to back up its allegation and asked it to “refrain from the blame game.”
“Investigations, (and they are still going on) point out that there are elements in Pakistan who are behind this,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters here after holding talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir.
“In today’s meeting, we had a frank discussion on how to deal with this,” Menon replied when asked whether India shared its suspicions about Pakistan’s alleged complicity in the car bomb attack outside the Indian mission that killed four Indians, including a diplomat and military attaché of brigadier rank, and 54 Afghans.
“Unfortunately, there have been several issues in the recent past which have vitiated the atmosphere and the composite dialogue process is under stress,” Menon said.
“There have been incitements to violence in Jammu and Kashmir, there has been cross-border terrorism, there have been incidents of infiltration along the LoC and public statements by leaders in Pakistan,” he said.
“This sequence of events culminated in the suicide bombing outside our embassy in Kabul on July 7,” he said.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee conveyed India’s concerns over the Kabul incident when his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi rang him up Sunday. The two ministers will meet on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Colombo next month, Menon said.
“India expects our concerns to be addressed. This is the basis on which we are engaged in discussion with Pakistan,” Menon said while reminding Pakistan of its January 6,2004 pledge not to allow territory under its control to be used for terror activities against India.
Menon also stressed that although the ceasefire had been under strain for some time, both sides are keen to maintain the ceasefire along the LoC through different mechanisms like the meeting between DGMOs and flag commanders.
Differing perceptions apart and a persisting trust deficit on terrorism, Menon and Bashir discussed Jammu and Kashmir and peace and security to launch the fifth round of composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.
The two sides also agreed on a set of cross-border confidence-building measures including triple entry permits for senior citizens and their spouses along the Poonch-Rawlakot stretch, streamlining the process of getting permits and a meeting between chambers of commerce between the India-ruled and Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.
The two sides agreed to make the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and the Poonch-Rawlakot bus link weekly from the current fortnightly service on August 21 and August 25 respectively.
With the Kabul incident threatening to overshadow the peace process, the two sides, however, emphasized the importance of keeping the dialogue on track.
Repudiating any involvement of Pakistan in the Kabul attack, Bashir underlined that his country, too, was a victim of terrorism and asked New Delhi to eschew the blame game. Instead, should India have any information or evidence about the alleged complicity of Pakistan (in the Kabul incident) they should share it, he said.
“The remarks have been a matter of disquiet for us. It’s imperative that we refrain from the blame game,” Bashir said when asked about National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan’s contention that the ISI masterminded the Kabul blasts.
“We welcome international efforts for the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” he replied when asked what was Pakistan’s stance on India’s reconstruction activities in Afghanistan.
“The dialogue is on track. It holds immense potential for people of both countries,” he said while trying to dispel the impression that the peace process was under strain.