By IRNA,
New Delhi : India on Monday raised the issue of involvement of some elements in Pakistan in the suicide bomb attack at its Embassy in Kabul.
The issue was raised at the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries to launch the fifth round of composite dialogue in New Delhi.
Briefing media on the meeting, the Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon said the talks were held at a difficult time in the relations between the two sides. He said that there have been incidents over Line of Control and incidents of cross border terrorism.
Menon said that there has also been incitement to violence in Jammu and Kashmir.
Elaborating on this, he said that there have been a series of statements from the public leaders in Pakistan resorting to old polemics culminating in suicide blast in the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
Menon said that all this has vitiated the atmosphere and put the dialogue process under stress. He said that India expects Pakistan to address New Delhi’s concerns on all these issues. He said this is the basis of our dialogue process that the two countries are engaged with.
The Foreign Secretary said that the violations in the ceasefire were also discussed. Both sides agreed that the ceasefire has to be maintained.
The two sides also discussed Jammu and Kashmir and the outcome of the meeting held on the 18th of this month of the working group on cross LoC CBMs. This was to facilitate the cross LoC travel and doubling the frequency of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and the Poonch-Rawalkot bus service.
The foreign secretary-level talks between Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, who arrived here Sunday, began on Monday morning to start the new round of “Composite Dialogue” that has been going on since 2004.
The Composite Dialogue is a crucial element in the peace process between the two neighbours that has been on track for the past four years.