In rare move,ISI hosts Indian attaches at its officers mess

Over the past year,ever since the probe into 26/11 bared the Pakistan connection to terror attacks in India,the ISI has made extra effort to get the optics right by reaching out to the Indian mission in Islamabad....

Over the past year,ever since the probe into 26/11 bared the Pakistan connection to terror attacks in India,the ISI has made extra effort to get the optics right by reaching out to the Indian mission in Islamabad,the latest being a farewell lunch to the outgoing Air Force Attache at the ISI officers mess in the last week of May.

The ISI,which is also the interface of defence attaches posted in Islamabad,does host such farewell lunches but rarely is it held in the ISI officers mess. Mostly,these lunches are organised in one of the Islamabad hotels and often hosted by a senior protocol official.

This time,however,the lunch was hosted by Deputy Director General (ISI) Maj Gen Niaz Muhammad Khattak who is said to be number two in the agencys hierarchy after Lt Gen Shuja Pasha.

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Its learnt that Khattak made a frank admission that Pakistani forces were overstretched because of the military campaign along their western border. He is said to have expressed the hope that the ongoing effort for bilateral re-engagement would yield positive results.

The three Indian defence attaches along with their spouses were invited to the lunch.

This social interaction comes ahead of two important visits to Islamabad first by Home Minister P Chidambaram on June 26 and then by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna next month.

While officials here claim that these gestures are cosmetic as there has been no let-up in ISIs aggressive monitoring and tailing of Indian diplomats posted there,they also agree that the ISI has rarely sent out such clear signals for improving relations.

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The first concrete gesture in this regard came on June 30 last year when the DG ISI met the three

Indian defence attaches posted in Islamabad. In September,Pasha showed up at the iftaar hosted by the Indian High Commissioner.

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