Mission Against Terror

India -- Pakistan On A Path Breaking Mission Against Terror
By Dr Suvrokamal Dutta

In a major breakthrough India and Pakistan in a significant meeting at Havana, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf decided to put in place an institutional mechanism to counter terrorism. It is a historic opportunity for India and Pakistan to solve this crucial issue of Terrorism and crush its terror network after agreeing on the establishment of a Anti –Terrorism Institutional Network.

At the end of the one-on-one talks without aides which were described as "cordial, frank and detailed”. Both the countries agreed on this anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations, this was declared in the joint statement read out by Dr. Singh along with General Musharraf at a media press conference.

The statement strongly condemned the Mumbai and the Maligaon bomb blasts and issued a strong statement against Terrorism by declaring " Both the countries strongly condemned all acts of terrorism and agreed that terrorism is a scourge that needs to be effectively dealt with."

Such a direct and candid admission by Pakistan that Trans-border terror networks should not only be identified but also needs to be crushed with heavy hand is a direct admission by Pakistan that all is not well within its territory and the terror networks which operates from across the border against India has to be crushed jointly. This is a significant development as for the first time Pakistan has accepted that for solving all the issues of concern with India it has to do much more on the area of Terrorism and to do this it needs the helping hand of India.

Further it was also agreed upon for the immediate resumption of the composite dialogue between the Foreign Secretaries "at the earliest". With a direct acknowledge that the peace process must be maintained and its success was not only important for both the countries by also for a bright and prosperous future of the entire South Asian Region.