Home Secretaries of India and Pakistan held first round of talks here on Monday on a number of bilateral issues, including progress in the probe of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Emerging after the talks, Home Secretary G. K. Pillai said that talks were ``extremely positive.’’ ``Progress made in certain direction, in the right direction,’’ Mr. Pillai told reporters on the first day of the two-day talks with Pakistani Interior Secretary Chaudhary Qamar Zaman.
Echoing the sentiments of his Indian counterpart, Mr. Zaman said the talks were ``very positive.’’ He said: ``Since, we have another day for the talks to still follow through, I am not going into the specifics,’’ he told reporters.
``But I can tell you with good amount of certainty that its been a very positive attitude displayed on both sides,’’ he said.
Mr. Zaman said there were issues that were yet to be discussed. ``We have issues that still we have to discuss. It’s been generally moving on in a good spirit and it has been a business like meeting,’’ he added.
Joint statement
The Pakistan Interior Secretary said that he planned to visit Agra on Wednesday. Mr. Pillai indicated that a joint statement would be issued on Tuesday.
Lasting for nearly five hours, the Home Secretary level talks also marked resumption of a structured high-level contact after the composite dialogue process was suspended in the wake of November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
The two delegations are learnt to have covered a wide range of issues concerning the two neighbours, including counter-terrorism measures, smuggling of narcotics and inflow of fake Indian currency notes.
The talks come ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani as the two leaders are scheduled to watch India-Pakistan semifinal match of the World Cup cricket at Mohali in Punjab on Wednesday. The talks are also likely to cover dismantling of terror camps across the border and progress of Samjhauta Express blasts probe.
