By IANS
New Delhi : India is likely to bring up with Pakistan the alleged complicity of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in recent blasts in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Ludhiana when the two sides hold the second meeting of their anti-terror mechanism here Monday.
K.C. Singh, additional secretary (international organisations) in the external affairs ministry, will lead the Indian side. Khalid Aziz Babar, additional secretary (UN&EC) in the ministry of foreign affairs, will lead the Pakistani delegation.
During the meeting of the anti-terror mechanism, Pakistan is likely to project itself as a victim of terrorism, specially in view of a string of recent bombings in different cities in Pakistan that has left hundreds dead and an equal number injured, capped by the devastating blasts in Karachi hours after the return of former premier Benazir Bhutto. India has condemned the Karachi blasts strongly.
India suspects the hand of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence in recent blasts in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Ludhiana.
National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had told a newspaper Wednesday: “There is no connection between the blasts in Ludhiana, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad), other than the fact that ISI’s involvement is suspected. That is the common link.
“There has been a manifest attempt in Pakistan to build up a radical Sikh environment,” Narayanan said while referring to the recent Ludhiana blast that left six people dead.
Pakistan was quick to react and predictably dismissed New Delhi’s contention that the ISI was involved in recent blasts in Indian cities.
“The timing of these allegations is especially regrettable because they could vitiate the atmosphere on the eve of bilateral talks on confidence-building measures taking place in New Delhi,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said in a statement in Islamabad.
Indian and Pakistani officials held talks here on various confidence-building measures (CBMs) Thursday and held another meeting on nuclear CBMs Friday.
India and Pakistan have agreed to hold a quarterly meeting of the anti-terror institutional mechanism, which was set up on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana nearly a year ago.
The mechanism was set up in the aftermath of the horrific bombings in Mumbai’s commuter trains that led to a brief suspension of the composite dialogue between the two countries.