Did hawks in Pakistan derail the talks?

India sees the outburst by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi against Home Secretary G K Pillai as an effort to divert attention from the issue of terrorism and feels that he could have been forced to do so by elements in Pakistan who want to scuttle the talks.

Government sources said the hawkish elements in Pakistan, which do not want dialogue between the two countries, were upset when the talks between the Home Ministers and Home Secretaries went off well last month.

The sources noted that the meeting between Home Ministers last month passed off so well that Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik went to the extent of telling Home Minister P Chidambaram that India would not be disappointed when Islamabad replies to terror related queries the next time.

However, Qureshi, during his joint press conference with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in Islamabad on Thursday, equated Pillai with Jamaat-ud Dawa chief and Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, by saying

that the Home Secretary was making negative comments.

Qureshi's statement was nothing but a diversionary tactic of Pakistan as it was yet to take any action on India's core concerns like infiltration into India which has increased in recent days, and providing the voice samples of terrorists and their handlers involved in the Mumbai attack, sources said in New Delhi on Friday.

"The hawks in Pakistan do not want Indo-Pak talks. These elements could be behind the sudden outburst of Qureshi," a source said.

Sources said Pakistan was peeved over Pillai's statement that LeT operative David Headley has revealed involvement of ISI in Mumbai terror attack from beginning to end.

The sources said the contents of Pillai's statement had already been conveyed to Pakistan.

"For rest of the information, India has told Pakistan to get in touch with the US Department of Justice and FBI. Home Secretary has only repeated what the Pakistani agencies and government are well aware of," the source said.