Sunday, July 16, 2006

Mumbai puts a freeze on the thaw between Indian and Pakistani relations.

Prime Minister Singh prepares to depart for the G8 Summit


India formally informed Pakistan today that high-level talks planned for this week over the peace negotiations between the two have been postponed indefinately.

The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan were supposed to meet in New Delhi on July 20th to continue negotiations started in January 2004 to normalize relations.

India is upset over the Mumbao train bombings carried out by Pakistani terrorists Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous. They feel that Pakistanis sheltering this group and have produced intel that shows ties to the Pakistani equivalenyt of our CIA, the ISI.

India's foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, indicated Saturday that the talks would not proceed as planned and said thatno new dates have been discussed.

"As a result of these terrorist attacks, it is becoming very difficult to take forward the peace process," he told reporters.

The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, blamed Pakistan on Friday for failing to rein in terrorist groups operating in its territory. He pointed out that the continuing peace talks explicitly call on Pakistan to crack down on organizations that engage in cross-border attacks.

Pakistan denies any connection to the Mumbai bombings. Its president, General Pervez Musharraf, condemned the attacks.

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