Keep 26/11 aside, begin talks: Pak to India

Pakistan on Tuesday asked India to start the composite dialogue process and delink it from the investigations into the Mumbai terror attacks, citing the Sharm-el-Sheikh agreement even as it assured that all leads provided to them were being seriously pursued.

"Both Pakistan and India are today at a stage unfortunately where there is no dialogue between them. I think we are at a stage that even if we are seated across the table and agree to disagree, even that is an improvement over the
current state of affairs," Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik said at a book-release function in New Delhi.

Stating that Pakistan had made "repeated requests" to India to start the dialogue process and was still waiting for a positive response, Malik said, "I was present in Sharm-el-Sheikh in July, where it was agreed in a statement -- where the two Prime Ministers were also present – that dialogue is the only way forward."

He said this agreement should be implemented soon. "I have indicated to the joint statement that investigations would be delinked from the composite dialogue process. The term delink was used...," Malik said.

"...Both have their own importance. Investigations are being conducted into that very unfortunate incident, but at the same time the dialogue process will not be linked, that was part of that statement," he added.

The Pakistan High Commissioner maintained that investigations were on into the Mumbai terror attacks and Islamabad was looking into the leads provided by New Delhi.

"So far as investigations are concerned, it is continuing. The government of Pakistan is seriously pursuing all the leads that have been provided by India," he said.

Malik asserted that other than conducting investigations as per these leads, Pakistan was also engaged in its own probe into the matter.