India and Pakistan renew commitment to peace process

BANGLADESH: South Asian rivals India and Pakistan on Monday pledged to push a peace process that had come under severe strain after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based Islamist militants for the Mumbai bombings.

The turnaround came after foreign secretaries of the countries - career diplomats who head the respective foreign ministries - held talks on the sidelines of a regional conference in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka.

It also signalled a desire by the old enemies to halt a familiar slide in relations, triggered by the train bombings in India's commercial and entertainment hub this month which killed more than 180 people and wounded hundreds more.

"The peace process is important for both countries and that is something that I found that my counterpart also believes in," Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told reporters after the hour-long talks.

"We are all convinced ... there is no other option but to pursue it," Khan said. Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran echoed those sentiments.

"We have both agreed that the process between the two countries is important and all possible efforts should be made to see that this process is not in any way adversely affected," he said.

New Delhi's concerns about cross-border violence by Islamist militant groups based in Pakistan had been conveyed to Islamabad, Saran said, adding he hoped they would be "properly addressed".

The two sides had also agreed to share any information either of them gathered about the Mumbai bombers, he said.

"We have agreed that we will remain in touch with each other," Saran said when asked if he and Khan set new dates for a peace dialogue scheduled for earlier in July before India called it off following the Mumbai blasts.

Meanwhile India and Pakistan have indefinitely postponed the opening of a crossing point along the heavily militarized frontier in Kashmir, a move that comes amid a halt in peace efforts between the nuclear rivals.

Four Islamic militants and a civilian were killed in a gunbattle near the so-called Line of Control and six people were injured in a grenade attack by the insurgents, the army and police said.

The crossing point was to be the fifth opened across the line since last year's massive earthquake left tens of thousands dead in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan.

But hours before its scheduled opening Monday near the town of Silikot, 110 kilometers (68 miles) north of Srinagar, the main city in India's part of Kashmir, Indian authorities said the crossing point would have to be put off indefinitely because Pakistan was not ready.

The "Pakistani army conveyed their lack of preparedness in a meeting with our army officers on Sunday who had met to check the final preparedness on both sides," army spokesman Lt. Col. V. K. Batra told The Associated Press.

Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment.

An Indian immigration officer in Srinagar, L. Sreeramalu, said authorities had cleared 25 people from Pakistan's part of Kashmir to cross into India's portion of the region before the delay was announced.

He said about 2,000 people have crossed at the four other points along the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir, which has been open since a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in October killed 80,000 people and left millions homeless in the region.

Dhaka, Srinagar, Tuesday, Reuters, AP