Foreign secretaries meeting: Islamabad, New Delhi reschedule talks

India welcomes proposed visit of special investigation team

NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD:

The planned bilateral talks between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India have been rescheduled through mutual agreement even as New Delhi on Thursday welcomed Islamabad’s crackdown against Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and visit of a special investigation team.

“Pakistan and India have agreed to reschedule the foreign secretary level talks in the very near future,” a brief statement issued by the Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah read.

“Pakistan and India are in touch to firm up date for the foreign secretary level talks,” he added.

The move came after foreign secretaries of the two countries spoke on the phone on Thursday and decided to defer the talks which had been tentatively set for Friday.

The foreign secretaries of the two hostile but hyphenated neighbours were due to meet on Friday (today) to finalise a road map for a series of meetings between officials of the two countries to discuss issues including peace and security, Kashmir, trade and commerce, Siachen and Sir Creek.



While no new date for the talks was announced, the two sides clarified that the postponement was only for a few days, meaning the agreement to resume the peace process will remain intact.

A senior Islamabad-based foreign ministry official, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Express Tribune that the two countries were committed to pursuing the peace talks and agreed not to get deterred by such terrorist attacks.

“The meeting [of foreign secretaries] has not been cancelled but deferred for a few days,” clarified the official. He said foreign secretaries meeting will likely take place within days.

The talks had been announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan late last month.

While Pakistan did not provide further details, the Indian external affairs ministry said the two countries had mutually agreed to reschedule the meeting in order to give more time for investigations into the Pathankot terrorist attack.

“The two foreign secretaries have spoken and they have mutually decided to reschedule the talks,” Indian External Affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Thursday.

“Action against those responsible for Pathankot is still going on, so the foreign secretaries must have thought to give some more time before going ahead with the meeting,” Swarup added.

The attack took place on January 2 when at least six armed men stormed the Pathankot airbase near the border with Pakistan leaving at least seven Indian military personnel dead. New Delhi had claimed that the attackers had come from Pakistan and provided what it called ‘actionable intelligence’ to Islamabad implicating the banned group JeM. The Pathankot attack was followed by an attack on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan which was also linked to the group.

Islamabad on Wednesday said that it had launched a crackdown against the group, detaining several suspects affiliated with the outfit including its head Maulana Masood Azhar. Creation of a six-member special investigation team to probe the attacks and an intention to visit India was also announced.

The creation of the team was welcomed by New Delhi.

“The government (of India) welcomes the proposed visit of Pakistani probe team and Indian investigative agencies will provide it all possible help,” Swarup said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2016.