LK Advani's Dawood demand derailed India-Pakistan talks in Agra: Kasuri

Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Tuesday tried to put the blame of failed talks between India and Pakistan in Agra on the then home minister Lal Krishna Advani.

Mumbai: Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Tuesday tried to put the blame of failed talks between India and Pakistan in Agra in 2001 on the then home minister Lal Krishna Advani.

According to Kasuri, Pakistan had provided India with addresses of terrorist camps operating in Kashmir as part of its deal to bring peace to the Valley.

However, Advani's demand to hand over terrorist Dawood Ibrahim derailed the talks.

"It was Advani's demand that Pakistan hand over fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim to India that destroyed the Agra peace talks," Mumbai Mirror quoted Kasuri as saying.

Kasuri, who served as Pakistan's foreign minister during General Pervez Musharraf's regime from 2002-2007, said how can you hand over somebody (Dawood) who the Pakistani authorities claim is not in the country.

He further admitted that Pakistani courts can throw out a prime minister, but not a terrorist. "Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was thrown out by the courts. But the killer of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer could not be tried for his crime," he said.

The member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, led by Imran Khan, added that radical elements have begun to dominate the scene in India and Pakistan in the absence of a dialogue between the two countries.

Kasuri was in Mumbai for the release of his book 'Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider's Account of Pakistan's Foreign Policy'.

Significantly, the book reveals an insider's account of how India and Pakistan nearly clinched a deal on Kashmir through back channel dialogues during former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's time.