Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon meets his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday to lay the ground for talks between the two Prime Ministers later this week but a 36-page dossier handed over by Islamabad to New Delhi on the action it has taken in connection with the 26/11 Mumbai attack isnt expected to give an immediate boost as it needs to be studied and verified by experts. The dossier was handed over by the Pak Foreign Ministry to acting Indian High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra late on Saturday night and also contains some questions and additional information Pak agencies want in connection with the Lashkar-e-Toiba men blamed for the Mumbai attack. They are also believed to have sought copies of documents that form part of the chargesheet filed in the case by the Mumbai police. On the face of it,it appears like Pakistan has taken some action but what they amount to is still to be judged and would require professional opinion, possibly from legal experts and investigative and intelligence agencies,sources said. That being New Delhis position,Menons meeting with Salman Bashir soon after the former lands in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh late tomorrow evening,will see the onus remaining on Pakistan to convey to India what progress it has made not only in connection with the Mumbai attacks but also the larger question of dismantling the terror infrastructure. Menon and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan are traveling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Paris for the French National Day celebrations tomorrow from where they move on to Sharm el-Sheikh for the 15th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Singh is due to hold talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday morning. The talks between the two Foreign Secretaries and the Prime Ministers is yet another step that hopes to help resume the peace process,suspended after the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul last year. However,India remains adamant about the need for concrete action from Pakistan to address New Delhis concerns and the past will not be dumped for history to repeat itself,the sources said. As a result,India is not thinking ahead of itself and has adopted a wait-and-watch attitude,clearly not in a position to take a stand on whether the composite dialogue should resume or not. In fact,some sections in the establishment feel that the two countries are far away from actually taking a firm call on the dialogue. There are no clear markers or milestones set that say if Pakistan takes a particular step,India will reciprocate with something specific. Incidentally,Pakistan is also not insisting on making the composite dialogue the only means of resuming engagement with India although Islamabad sticks to that stand in public. The Pakistani leadership continues to repose faith in the mechanism of the composite dialogue but it does not also say at the same time that these talks are the only way for the two countries to move forward. Separately,India feels that Pakistan should not take shelter under legal arguments and the opinion of its Supreme Court about acting against Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed because the UN resolution for action against his Jamat-ud-Dawa does not call for imprisoning him. For New Delhi,there is no doubt about Saeeds culpability and Pakistan is obliged to act against him as a normal,decent,civilized nation.
