Pak, India resume anti-terror parleys
By OUr Diplomatic Corresponcent

ISLAMABAD—The second round of Pak-India talks on anti-terror mechanism will be held on Monday in New Delhi to discuss the issues relating to terrorism and review the progress made in the first meeting in this connection held in Islamabad in March 2007.
The decision to set up this mechanism was taken during the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President General Pervez Musharraf in Havana on September 16 last year.
Khalid Aziz Babar, Additional Secretary (UN and EC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs will lead Pakistan’s delegation while the Indian side will be led by K. C. Singh, Additional Secretary (International Organisation), Ministry of External Affairs.
Meanwhile, a meeting of SAARC Home Ministers will be held in New Delhi on October 25 to discuss issues of terrorism, money laundering, drug and human trafficking. Federal Minister for Interior Aftab Sherpao will lead Pakistan in this meeting. Prior to this meeting, police chiefs of SAARC countries will also meet in New Delhi on October 23.
The Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan and India will meet early next year in New Delhi, to review all the meetings held under Composite Dialogue Process and to devise future strategy.
Top Indian and Pakistani security officials and diplomats will meet Monday to resume anti-terror talks as part of a peace process launched by the South Asian rivals to cool regional tensions, an official said. The ongoing talks which were launched earlier this year are intended to put in place a regular mechanism to share intelligence on cross-border militant activity.
An Indian official said Sunday New Delhi was likely to prod Islamabad to share information it may have on a February 18 bombing in India of a Pakistan-bound train which killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis. “In our last meeting earlier this year we handed over the photograph of a suspect, believed to be a Pakistani, and now we want to know what follow-up action has been taken,” said the home ministry official, who did not wish to be named.
India claims Pakistan-based militants were behind the attack on the Samjhauta (Friendship) Express train as well as in a string of other bombings across India since 2006. The one-day meeting in New Delhi is part of a slow-moving peace process launched by the nuclear-armed rivals in 2004 to cool regional tensions.
Officials, however, said Friday’s suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Karachi which killed 139 people during former premier Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming from years of exile was likely to overshadow the talks. “It seems we will be going through the motions only and one cannot expect any meaningful talks in view of the devastating attack in Pakistan,” the Indian official said.
The talks also follow renewed accusations from New Delhi that Islamabad continues to support attacks in India.