NEW DELHI, July 2:
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani arrives here tomorrow to hold talks on Wednesday with his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai during which arrest of LeT terrorist Zabiuddin Ansari, who revealed Pakistan’s involvement in November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is expected to be raised by New Delhi.
Significantly, Jilani, immediately after his arrival here, will hold meetings with Kashmiri separatists, including Hurriyat Conference faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a move which is not likely to go down well with New Delhi.
In an official announcement, Ministry of External Affairs today said “the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet here on Wednesday in New Delhi on July 4th and 5th to discuss peace and security including CBMs, Jammu and Kashmir and promotion of friendly exchanges.”
However, with the meeting taking place in the backdrop of the deportation from Saudi Arabia of Zabiuddin, aka Abu Jundal, who has revealed that he, along with LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, was in the control room in Pakistan during 26/11 Mumbai carnage, New Delhi is expected to flag the issue.
“….Pakistan should admit that Abu Jundal did go to Pakistan, that Abu Jundal was part of the group which trained and prepared (Amir Ajmal) Kasab and nine others and that Abu Jundal was in the control room and one of the masterminds and handlers of the attack,” Home Minister P Chidambaram had said after Jundal’s interrogation by security forces here.
Apart from terror, the issue of release of Indian prisoner Sarabjeet Singh, who is on death row for the last 20 years, is also expected to be taken up by India.
The Foreign Secretaries’ meeting was to be a precursor to talks between the Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers scheduled for the latter half of July in Islamabad. But the ministerial-level talks have been postponed as the dates were clashing with the Presidential poll here. The talks are likely to take place in August, according to officials.
The Indo-Pak dialogue, which was stalled following the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008, resumed last year with both sides holding a series of meetings on the eight components under the ‘Composite Dialogue’ format, including terrorism, Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and Trade. (PTI)
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