Gilani repeated the civilian government’s line that a standoff between India and Pakistan would “further the agenda’’ of terrorists who thrived on anti-India sentiments.
India remains sceptical about Pakistan’s offer of sharing intelligence to avert future terror attacks in the country. Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made the offer during talks with visiting United States senator John Kerry on Tuesday.
Gilani repeated the civilian government’s line that a standoff between India and Pakistan would “further the agenda’’ of terrorists who thrived on anti-India sentiments. The blast at the German Bakery in Pune occurred a day after the two countries announced resumption of dialogue at the foreign secretary-level.
“Pakistan had made progress in bringing perpetrators of the
Mumbai incident to justice and was determined not to allow use of its soil for terrorist activity against any of its neighbours,” Gilani told reporters after talks with Kerry.
But the offer of talks on intelligence sharing is not new. Pakistan and India have held rounds of anti-terror talks, the first after prime minister Manmohan Singh and General Pervez Musharraf met in Havana in 2006. So far, 10 rounds of talks have been held at various levels, including home secretary-level meets. But the end results have been negative.
“What we have found is that after sharing intelligence with the other side, and asking them for information, the leads have dried up. Instead, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has used the information to make sure that groups operating against India are warned,’’ a senior official said.
Former secretary KC Singh, who led two rounds of anti-terror talks, recalled how ISI representatives would sit at the table, watch the proceedings with hawk eyes and ensure the talks went nowhere.
“Unless Pakistan decides to change its long held view of using terror as an instrument of state policy against India, intelligence co-operation has little meaning,’’ the official said.
However, India is willing to give the civilian government of Pakistan the benefit of the doubt, saying even if Gilani wanted to co-operate, the army and ISI would make sure the offer was nipped in the bud.
Soon after the Mumbai terror strikes, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was then visiting India, said that he had been instructed by president Asif Ali Zardari to ask ISI chief General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha to fly to Delhi for consultations with his Indian counterpart.
But even as Qureshi made the offer and planned to leave New Delhi the next morning, the army sent out a special plane and told him to fly out immediately. Kayani had over-ruled Zardari’s offer.
This is why India cannot take these offers by the civilian government seriously. Even during the all-powerful Musharraf’s time, intelligence co-operation was a non-starter. With the army increasingly calling the shots in Pakistan, Gilani’s offer, however sincere, will never be implemented.
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