Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

Pakistan Says India’s Spy Agency Accusation Is ‘Uncalled For’
July 16, 2010, 2:06 AM EDT

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Indian claims its spy agency plotted the 2008 attacks on Mumbai were “uncalled for” and undermined efforts to restore the peace process.

Qureshi and Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna yesterday held seven hours of talks in Islamabad and agreed to meet again, without setting a date. The session was extended in a sign of warming ties, delaying a planned press briefing.

Indian mistrust of its neighbor intensified after the Mumbai assault in which Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people. Improved ties are key to U.S.-led efforts to fight militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and foster peace in the region.

“As expected there was no breakthrough,” said D. Suba Chandran, deputy director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies. “Both sides are really not sincere to take the peace process forward at this stage. They are holding talks because of U.S. pressure.”

Krishna said he would return to India in the hope that the Pakistani government would follow up leads provided by David Coleman Headley, a suspect in the Mumbai attacks who is in U.S. custody. Krishna is the most senior Indian politician to visit Pakistan since the Mumbai assault, which set back five years of peace negotiations.

Pillai Accusation

Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai was quoted in the Indian Express newspaper before the talks as saying that the Headley interrogation showed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency had played a more significant role in the siege than previously thought. Its officers “were literally controlling and coordinating it from the beginning till the end,” the paper quoted Pillai as saying.

“On the eve of this dialogue tell me to what extent” Pillai’s remarks help, Qureshi said.

Headley in March pleaded guilty in the U.S. to charges arising from terrorism training and spying missions that he said helped Pakistani militants linked to al-Qaeda plan attacks abroad, including the one in Mumbai.

India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram visited Pakistan last month as the nations sought to rekindle the peace process. The U.S. wants better relations between the two countries to support its strategy to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, where India and Pakistan compete for influence.

“Pakistan would take the leads provided by the home minister very seriously because we want to move on,” Qureshi said.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

India has maintained that no return to full-fledged talks is possible until Pakistan fully dismantles terrorist groups on its soil, especially the Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit that India blames for the Mumbai attacks.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani agreed to step up dialogue during a meeting in April in the Bhutanese capital.

Economic development in South Asia has suffered because of rivalry between India and Pakistan, which account for four- fifths of the region’s economy. India accuses Pakistan of supporting armed extremists in Jammu and Kashmir, its only Muslim-dominated state. Pakistan denies the charges and says it offers only moral support to separatists.

Kashmir and the threat posed by militants remain the biggest flashpoints. The five-year peace process restored diplomatic, sporting and transport links, improving prospects for progress on contentious issues such as the sharing of water from major rivers.

Pakistan says it has begun a closed trial of some members of Lashkar, formed to fight Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which is claimed in full by both countries. India wants Pakistan to target the militant outfit’s chief, Hafiz Saeed.

“There are important issues including terrorism and they should be addressed and we have to discuss them,” Qureshi said. “We have agreed on the need to discuss important issues to make the process meaningful.”

--Editors: Mark Williams, Bill Austin

To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at [e-mail]; Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hari Govind at [e-mail]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-16/pakistan-says-india-s-spy-agency-accusation-is-uncalled-for-.html