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New Delhi, July 3: Foreign secretaries Ranjan Mathai and Jalil Abbas Jilani will meet here over two days from tomorrow with 26/11 suspect Abu Jundal’s shadow looming large as they try to lift the India-Pakistan dialogue process from recent stumbles.
The threat of terror has come into sharp focus with Jundal. Home ministry sources said India would hand over a dossier to Jilani’s team on the arrested suspect, including details of his Pakistani passport.
“We are considering what information to provide from Jundal’s interrogation and the details we received from Saudi Arabia (from where he was sent to India),” said an official. The passport shows him as a resident of Sheikhpura in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Pakistani authorities had urged Saudi Arabia to hand over Jundal to them after his detention in Riyadh a year ago. However, India was successful in getting the custody of Jundal by submitting documents related to his Indian citizenship besides giving DNA samples of his parents.
Home minister P. Chidambaram has acknowledged that Jundal is an Indian radicalised here but urged Islamabad to accept that he was trained in Pakistan and co-ordinated the Mumbai attacks.
Foreign secretary Jilani promised “all possible help”. “We have seen reports about Abu Jundal and have requested the Indian government to share evidence. We will extend every possible help in this regard,” Jilani said when asked about the suspect.
Jilani later met Hurriyat leaders led by Yasin Malik. They demanded that Kashmir be the focus of the neighbours’ dialogue. “Kashmiris have the right to live in peace. Both countries should resolve the issue,” Malik said.
Talks between the neighbours in recent months have not yielded progress on issues considered “do-able”, such as Sir Creek and Siachen. But Jilani seemed hopeful. “I am looking forward to a very constructive dialogue with my counterpart Ranjan Mathai.”
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