Pakistan Starts Singing Kashmir Tune Again

As usual just before a talk Pakistan has started singing the old tune of Kashmir being the core issue. Unfortunately for India, the present Indian leadership is ready to listen to this non-sense. This gives Pakistan even more space to trash talk.

Everybody in both the countries know that the latest round of talks are nothing but an eyewash meant to placate respective European or western masters.Pakistan will never do anything about state sponsored terrorism except give lip service. This simple truth is beyond the peace obsessed Prime Minister of India. Readers might remember this was exactly the case before the outbreak of the second world war.

No dates have been finalised yet for the talks, but a source said Islamabad had proposed June 24-25. Delhi is yet to respond to the proposal.

“Jammu and Kashmir is the core issue and it was imperative to address this issue effectively and in a purposeful manner in the forthcoming dialogue with India,” a statement issued by the Foreign Office after Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir’s consultative session with Kashmiri leadership on the impending dialogue with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao.He is exactly correct, once Pakistan withdraws from the illegally occupied portion of Jammu and Kashmir, we can talk about it. I am sure that only a minuscule minority want to go with Pakistan because in Pakistan only thing cheap are bomb and death, while with India they have a future a chance to grow individually and as a state.

The two secretaries are to discuss Jammu and Kashmir; peace and security; and friendly exchanges at the meeting, but India, according to the source, is pushing for a discussion on the latest evidence in the Mumbai attacks in the light of Headley’s testimony before a Chicago court and Tahawwur Rana’s confessional statement.(Read lovely outing for the secretary and enjoying some local delicacies)

The two sides discussed the progress in the Mumbai case at the meeting of interior/home secretaries in March at the start of the ongoing engagement process. Mumbai per se does not form part of the agenda of the secretaries’ meeting and Indian push for its inclusion is being seen by Pakistani officials as counter-productive.Correct again do not talk about things which expose Pakistan as an epicenter of World Terrorism.

“We are cognizant that despite our desire to have a result-oriented process, it can’t happen in one interaction,” a senior official noted and called for finding space to allow the revived peace process to progress.

Earlier this week Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna indicated that the foreign secretary would raise the issue of alleged nexus between ISI and the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, highlighted during the trial of terror suspect Tahawwur Rana.