Government sources today said the talks schedule remains unchanged for the moment.
The Pune terror attack, coming a day after Islamabad accepted India’s invitation for talks, has left the government with hard choices. But despite the opposition gunning for the decision to re-engage with Pakistan, the government may go ahead with it.
“Talks will go ahead as planned,” sources in the government said, adding it was a conscious decision to engage Pakistan. “India is aware of the complexities involved. Our focus will basically be terror,’’ a senior official at the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said. What could be a pointer is so far there has been no official mention of either the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or any other Pakistan-based group in the incident.
The government will also take into account the timing of the Pune blast. It is known that the LeT, the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Pakistani Taliban thrive best when there is tension between India and Pakistan. These outfits are against any rapproachment between the countries.
“We are aware that the dark forces of terrorism are against peace and amity between nations. It is most tragic and unfortunate that they have struck again…’’ external affairs minister SM Krishna said. He was non-committal when reporters questioned him about talks with Pakistan, saying the government would take a call only after the details of the investigation were known.
Much will depend on the identity of the group responsible for the blast at German Bakery. The government will face the heat especially as the parliament meets just four days ahead of the foreign secretary level talks on February 25.
The opposition has already questioned India’s decision to hold talks until the terror infrastructure is eliminated by Pakistan. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday criticised prime minister Manmohan Singh, saying the about-turn by the government on talks was unnecessary.
But many believe the talks are the way ahead. “The government will go ahead and talk. The Pune blast is not devastating enough to stop engagement. [However, while] talking to Pakistan is fine, but the way we have gone about it is not. It should have been measured and calibrated,’’ KC Singh, former secretary in the ministry of external affairs, said.
Wary of the fallout of the bakery blast on the talks, Pakistan’s prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has condemned it. “We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We want the region to be free from this menace. We want to have good relations with India. We want talks to be meaningful,” he said.
Yet there are other worrisome signs for the government. It is already acknowledged that there has been a massive increase in both violence and infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir in January made by various stakeholders at the multi-agency centre.
Violence has more than doubled — 50 this January against 21 incidents in the corresponding period in 2009. Combined with this is the staggering increase in infiltration attempts in the Jammu side. There were as many as 62 terrorist infiltration attempts in January, the highest number for the month in recent years.
For the entire 2009, Jammu region saw only 89 attempts, and even at the peak of militancy just about 250 infiltration attempts were made in a year in the Jammu region. The government will have to factor all this in when taking the call on engaging with Pakistan.
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