New Delhi: Home Secretaries of India and
Pakistan held talks for over five hours on Monday termed by both
sides as "extremely positive" and moving in the "right
direction".
"Talks are extremely positive. Progress made in certain
direction, in the right direction," Home Secretary GK Pillai
told reporters at the end of the first day of the two-day
talks with his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhary Qamar Zaman.
Zaman, who is leading a 12-member delegation, also said
talks were "very positive". "Since, we have another day for
the talks to still follow through, I am not going into the
specifics at the moment."
"But I can tell you with good amount of certainty that
it’s been a very positive attitude displayed on both sides and
I am really confident about tomorrow`s proceedings also," he
said.
He went on to say that there were issues that were yet
to be discussed. "We have issues that still we have to
discuss. It’s been generally moving on in a good spirit and it
has been a result-oriented meeting."
The Pakistan Home Secretary said he plans to visit Agra
on Wednesday.
A joint statement by midday tomorrow, Pillai said.
The parleys, which stretched to over five hours, are
understood to have covered a wide range of issues concerning
the two countries including the progress in the probe into
26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
The talks marked the resumption of high-level discussions
on all issues, more than two years after the composite
dialogue process was suspended in the wake of the November,
2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Incidently, when Mumbai was being attacked by Lashker-e-
Toiba terrorists, the then Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta
was in Islamabad.
During the talks, the Indian side assisted by officials
from security agencies will also discuss cross-border
terrorism, smuggling of narcotics and flow of counterfeit
currency.
New Delhi is unhappy over Islamabad`s reluctance in
cooperating fully in bringing to justice the perpetrators of
the Mumbai carnage.
Today`s talks come ahead of the meeting between Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Yousuf
Raza Gilani in Mohali where the two leaders will witness
Wednesday`s India-Pakistan World Cup cricket semi-final clash.
PTI
