Indo-Pak Talks Not to Be Affected by Infiltration, Terror: Antony

Defence Minister AK Antony has said that the proposed foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan will ‘not be affected’ in spite of increased infiltration by militants from across the border and despite Islamabad failing to destruct terror infrastructure on its soil, reported PTI.

Clarifying India’s reason to go ahead with the dialogue, Antony said that Pakistan had taken ‘some action’ against the terrorists responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks as per India’s wishes, said report.

“It (infiltration and failure to dismantle terror groups) won’t affect our dialogue or the scheduled meeting at the Foreign Secretary level,” Antony was quoted as saying.

He made the remarks while talking to reporters in New Delhi on the sidelines of an Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) Conference on Asian Security.

“It is not sudden talks. We have been watching what action Pakistan has been taking (against terror groups responsible for Mumbai attacks). Even though we are not fully satisfied on the action taken by Pakistan, we feel they have taken some action as per our wish. So it is a positive development. So we decided to initiate talks,” he was quoted as saying.

The minister was answering the questions whether the talks would be affected by incursion and terror groups operating from Pakistani soil and whether there was any pressure on India to hold the talks, said report.

“India has taken a conscious decision after seeing some signs from Pakistan to take action (against terrorists). That’s why the talks were initiated by our side,” he was quoted as saying.

Noting that infiltration by militants into Jammu and Kashmir have increased this year, Antony said that there was ‘a calculated’ plan behind the spurt ‘because in the last few years, especially last year, the law and order situation in the state has improved and violence levels had come down’, said report.

The minister said that it was ‘a happy’ situation for peace-loving people both within India and outside and that there were forces bent upon creating ‘chaos and trouble’. They were ‘disturbed and perturbed that the situation is going in a different direction’, said report.