Pranab Dhal Samanta
The Indian Express
September 30, 2013
Taking their first tentative steps towards putting the peace process back on track, Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif Sunday agreed to have the DGMOs on both sides work out a way to maintain ceasefire on the Line of Control. This would mark the first military-to-military conversation between the two countries.
While the Indian side was reluctant to give out further details, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani later said: “The two DGMOs (director generals of military operations) will meet and establish a joint mechanism for not only investigation of incidents on the LoC, but also to ensure there is no recurrence of violence.”
As reported by The Sunday Express, Pakistan had proposed a mechanism on LoC violence in the run-up to the meeting, which could either be at the foreign secretary level or could be a combined group of foreign office and military officials.
It appeared, has put its premium on results this time, which would mean no more LoC violence, an early resumption of the 26/11 trial in Pakistan and taking measures to crack down on anti-India terror groups.
There was no one-on-one session between Singh and Sharif. While India called such high-level meetings “useful”, Pakistan went one step further to call these “positive” and “constructive”.
Emerging from the hour-long meeting, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon did not speak about any new mechanism. He restricted himself to saying that the two DGMOs will identify measures to restore and maintain peace and tranquillity along the LoC.
“Both leaders agreed that peace and tranquillity on the LoC is a precondition to moving the peace process forward. And to ensure there is improvement in the current situation, the two leaders directed the two DGMOs to come up with measures.”
He also made it clear that the “stage for a broader dialogue has not come”.
While Menon refused to go into further detail when asked whether any new committee or mechanism was in the offing, sources later explained that India had given no commitment to any new mechanism but neither rejected it outright. The priority for the Indian camp was to convey a strong message, hoping it would be reflected on the ground.
This is important because the last time India agreed to set up new mechanism was on the margins of the 2006 NAM Summit in Havana, to unlock the bilateral conversation which was stalled after the Mumbai train blasts.
At that time, a joint anti-terror mechanism was set up but it proved to be a failure except for facilitating the resumption of the dialogue process. It barely met a few times before fading away despite presence of members of intelligence agencies from both sides.
The Indian side is thus sceptical about new mechanisms and is keen to try out existing channels first. So careful was the Indian camp that it did not even want to attempt a joint statement on any of this, unlike in Havana or Sharm-el-Sheikh.
Asked how soon he expected the next meeting between the two leaders, Menon said: “No decision has been taken on another meeting. As I have said, we have to address the current situation (violence on the LoC) first. The proof will be there in the months to come.”
Both Sharif and Singh reiterated their invitations to each other to visit their countries.
On the 26/11 trial, Jilani said the delay was due to access not being given to the Pakistan Judicial Commission that came to India, in a manner that would have been legally acceptable. The team visited India again last week, with the authorisation to cross-examine witnesses.
“The commission has just returned and will be filing its report. Based on that, we hope to speed up the trial,” said Jilani.
But the one issue on which the Pakistani side was quite upset had to do with India’s allegation of the Punjab government in Pakistan funding the Jamat-ud-Dawa. Menon, in fact, confirmed that the Prime Minister had raised it with Sharif.
Jilani claimed that due to the UN sanctions, all institutions under the JuD, especially madarsas, were placed under government control. “Efforts are being made to reform these madrasas and make them like proper government schools. The UN team which visits periodically to check on implementation of sanctions has not found anything adverse in its report.”
