New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) A day before talks with his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani Tuesday asked India to share evidence about 26/11 plotter Abu Jindal’s connections with Pakistan and offered help in the fight against terrorism.
In a move calculated to provoke India, Jilani met leading Kashmiri separatists Tuesday.
Jilani, who arrived here via the Wagah border, stressed that he has been given the mandate to carry forward the dialogue process with India.
“I am looking forward to my meeting with Ranjan Mathai. We would discuss issue related to peace and security, Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“We have seen press reports regarding Jindal, we will extend all possible help to India. Criminals are criminals in Pakistan and in India. We condemn any terrorist,” he said here to queries about stunning revelations made by Abu Hamza Jindal.
Earlier, at the Wagah border, Jilani asked India to share evidence about Jindal’s alleged links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
“We have requested the Indian government to share evidence with us and we will extend every possible help in this regards,” he told reporters.
“Pakistan will support India in its fight against terrorism,” he said.
Responding to questions about Pakistan’s perceived flip-flop over death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, Jilani said that the issue had already been taken at the level of home ministers of two countries who were looking into it.
Mathai and Jilani will begin two-day talks Wednesday that will focus on issues like peace and security including confidence-building measures, Jammu and Kashmir, and the promotion of friendly exchanges.
The agenda of the foreign-secretary talks had been fixed well in advance, but in the wake of the disclosures made by Abu Jindal, an Indian key 26/11 plotter with links to Pakistani militants, terrorism could become the main focus of the talks.
In a move that has upset India, Jilani met leaders of both the factions of Hurriyat Conference and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Tuesday.
Kashmiri separatists Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had been invited for talks.
The meeting is seen as another attempt by Pakistan to out the focus on the Kashmir issue amid fresh disclosures by Jindal, which New Delhi says has pointed to the involvement of Pakistan state actors in the 26/11 carnage.
Sources in India’s foreign ministry said such meeting are not conducive to creating a positive atmosphere or reducing trust deficit, a key objective of the dialogue process which India and Pakistan revived only in February last year after a long hiatus following the Mumbai terror.
