India-Pakistan Crisis Peace Talks

By Cernig

Foreign ministers from Pakistan and India have held an emergency session of talks sparked by recent cease-fire breaks in the disputed Kashmir region.

India's Pranab Mukherjee gave no details of his meeting with Pakistan's Shah Mehmood Qureshi, but said the two nations' prime ministers would meet on Saturday on the sidelines of a South Asian summit.

"We shared our perception about our bilateral relations, about composite (peace) dialogue and certain recent events," Mukherjee told reporters.

The 2003 ceasefire on the de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region was a key confidence-building step by the two sides. Recent violations include three exchanges of fire on the dividing line this month alone.

"A lot of steam had been let out of the pressure cooker," Qureshi told reporters separately, speaking of the meeting. "The dish we are going to cook is going to be for the betterment of the region."

Asked about the ceasefire violations, Qureshi said: "By and large it (ceasefire) has been maintained. Minor incidents can't be ruled out. Pakistan deeply respects the ceasefire."

Well, Pakistan respects the notion of seeming to observe the ceasefire, certainly. But all the violations begin on the Pakistani side and Pakistan's government offers safe haven to the leaders of Kashmiri militant groups who regularly carry out attacks inside India.

Pakistan's foreign minister also told reporters his nation rejects Indian accusations that it is a state-sponsor of terrorism inside India and said India had no evidence for its claims. He must mean other than the ISI-backed Lashkar -e-Taiba and SIMI terror groups - who were responsible for the Mumbai bombs back in 2006, among others. They must mean other than the notorious terrorist and organised crime boss Dawood Ibrahim, who shelters under the ISI's wing at a safe house in Islamabad. And they almost certainly mean other than the evidence presented by the Afghan government, the U.K. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. UK intelligence reportedly even provided the Pakistanis and US, at one point, with the address of the ISI safe house in Quetta where Taliban leader Mullah Omar was hiding.

At some point, the dangerous situation in the sub-continent will have to be resolved, beyond short-term papering over of the obvious.

Update: More from Time magazine's Omar Waraich in Islamabad. He gives a good summary of recent failed moves by the Pakistani civilian government to make the ISI more accountable and cites former ISI chief General Hameed Gul as saying the ISI leadership has dropped its associations with Islamist terror groups. But then again, Gul would say that as he wants to shield his co-conspirators from Western anger.