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India, Pakistan hold more talks

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan began talks yesterday on drug trafficking, terrorism and the status of nationals jailed in each other's prisons as part of their ongoing peace process, an Indian official said.

The talks between the two countries' home secretaries (top interior ministry officials) follow meetings earlier this month on nuclear issues, conventional warfare and cross-border trade.

They form part of the so-called Composite Dialogue launched in January last year and aimed at resolving decades-old conflicts, including the one over Kashmir.

"Usually the agenda is terrorism and drug trafficking but this time we have requested that we would like to discuss the issue of prisoners held in both countries," Pakistani home secretary Syed Kamal Shah told reporters Sunday.

He said the 11-member Pakistani delegation had come to India with a "positive and open mind."

Shah's Indian counterpart V.K. Duggal confirmed yesterday that New Delhi had agreed to talk about the fate of prisoners.

The subject assumed prominence after Pakistan's Supreme Court this month confirmed a death sentence on Indian national Sarabjit Singh for allegedly masterminding bomb blasts in the northern Pakistani city of Lahore -- raising a storm of protest in India.

Pakistan says Singh is an Indian spy who carried out the 1990 bomb attacks but his family says he is a farmer who crossed the border while he was drunk and has urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to grant him clemency.

India will also take up the cases of all Indians in Pakistani jails, a home ministry official said. India says there are 1,348 Indians in Pakistani prisons while Pakistan says more than 700 of its nationals are in Indian jails.

Besides the issue of detainees, Duggal said New Delhi would press Islamabad to deport "terrorists" who committed crimes in India and then took refuge in Pakistan, including mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.

New Delhi accuses Ibrahim of masterminding 1993 serial bomb blasts in India's commercial capital Mumbai which left hundreds dead.

India will also ask for the deportation of Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Sayed who head the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba militant groups respectively, media reports yesterday quoted Duggal as saying.

The two groups are among many battling Indian security forces in the disputed region of Kashmir.

New Delhi will ask Islamabad to dismantle what it says are "terrorist training camps" in its territories, including its portion of Kashmir, Duggal told Zee Television.

India accuses Pakistan of training Islamic rebels to bolster the rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir, a charge it denies.

"During the talks, the Indian side will raise security concerns and urge upon the Pakistani side to widen cooperation in combating the menace of terrorism," an Indian home ministry statement said.

It added that both sides would make efforts to "expedite the finalization and signing of [an agreement] ... to have a regular institutional mechanism in place on drug control matters."

On Sept. 1 top foreign ministry officials from both countries will meet in Islamabad. This could pave the way for a possible meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's President Pervez Muharraf on the sidelines of the UN summit in New York later next month.
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