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Check ceasefire violations, India tells Pakistan

— PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

Let’s work for peace: National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan with his Pakistan counterpart Mahmud Ali Durrani before a meeting in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: India on Monday conveyed its concerns to Pakistan over ceasefire violations and the continuing infiltration of militants into Jammu & Kashmir and pointed out that these irritants, if left unchecked, would not contribute to on-going efforts to improve bilateral ties.

Pakistan, on the other hand, expressed its desire for closer relations with India and suggested the need to wrap up talks on a couple of territorial disputes and avoid creating fresh ones such as over the management of waters of rivers flowing through both countries.

During talks between National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan and his Pakistani counterpart Mahmud Ali Durrani here, India is also understood to have raised the issue of the bombing of its embassy in Afghanistan in which the hand of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence is suspected.

The two NSAs also discussed the possibility of taking measures to totally curb instances of firing on the Line of Control and the International Border with Pakistan.

A day before Gen. Durrani meets Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, India was confident that all of its concerns would be addressed. “We will discuss all the issues that concern us. Naturally, that includes what happened in Kabul, that includes the situation in terms of maintaining the ceasefire. We will do that,” Mr. Menon told journalists.

“Mr. Durrani is an old friend. We have known him before. We know him and he has an interest in Indo-Pak relations for quite some years. Let us see what we can take forward,” added Mr. Menon.

The Foreign Secretary referred to several statements issued by leaders of the two countries and felt they reflected the determination to resolve issues that are of concern to all.

Sources here said Gen. Durrani, a votary of dialogue to resolve disputes, is on an exploratory mission to understand India’s response to resolving the Sir Creek and the Siachen disputes. India acknowledges that the Sir Creek dispute was a “cartographer’s problem” and that Independence converted it from a district-level dispute to an international one. Siachen too, India feels, can be resolved and it is a matter of trusting each other’s assurances.

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