After a six-month pause, India and Pakistan on Tuesday resumed their composite dialogue with the Foreign Secretaries meeting here to discuss various bilateral issues including terrorism, Kashmir and confidence building measures. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his counterpart Salman Bashir held delegation level discussions to review the fourth round of composite dialogue. Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and various confidence building measures were discussed.
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will call on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on Wednesday and discuss various aspects of bilateral relations including taking forward the Composite Dialogue Process.Mukherjee, who is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad later today for discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qureshi to take forward the CDP into the fifth round, would also meet Pakistani leaders Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari.
Four Indian authors, including well-known writer Urvashi Butalia, attended the KLF which was held between February 10-12 in Pakistan.
The five-year-long ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir was jolted on Tuesday evening, by an incident of firing by Pakistani troops, in the Tangdhar sector at northern Kashmir's Kupwara district.
Menon said he would not like to jump to any conclusion as to which terrorist group was behind the Jaipur bomb blasts. Asked if the government of India was taken by surprise by the series of bomb blasts that shook Jaipur on Tuesday night particularly when it came after firing from across the border from the Pakistani Rangers and the killing of innocent persons in Samba sector in Jammu resign, the foreign secretary said that peace and security would be high on the agenda.
The repeated skirmishes saw over 4,000 villagers from near borders to government camps at safer places in the district.
Ahead of the five-day visit from tomorrow of Pakistan's commerce minister, Makhdoom M Amin Fahim, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday recommended that bilateral economic cooperation be promoted through a focus on healthcare, information technology and entertainment sectors.
An unfinished Integrated Check Post, a shabby passenger terminal, the lack of a connecting road on the Pakistani side and pending permissions, all threaten to undermine a historical trade agreement.
The Pakistan Cricket Board says 'everything is in the air' as far as resumption of bilateral series with India is concerned and it does not expect any progress on the issue until the BCCI holds a formal meeting with its officials.
Clinton said that a stable relationship between India and Pakistan would also help promote long-term stability in Afghanistan. She added that the recent elections in Pakistan had proved the Bush administration's policy towards Pakistan wrong.
Having waited 35 years, Paramjit Kaur is glad to be reuniting with her husband Kashmir Singh, who spent half his life in Pakistani jails, but is anxious about know how to break the news about his mother's death two months ago. She has come here with her brother Tarlok Singh, son Shispal Singh and former AIR news director G C Bharadwaj -- who spearheaded the campaign for the death row prisoner's release from Lahore jail -- to welcome her husband back to India.
Over 30 snow mobiles were inducted into the Kargil-Siachen sector soon after the Kargil war, to give better mobility to the troops patrolling the Indo-Pak border, the sources said. Now, these snow mobiles have almost completed their effective utility period, they said, adding that was the reason why snow scooters were required.
