David Miliband in Pak to meet top leadership

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in Pak to meet the country's top leadership to defuse tensions between India and Pak.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband,who arrived in the Pakistani capital on Friday for a brief visit,will meet the country’s top leadership,with an aim to defuse tensions with India over the Mumbai attacks and to push the nations to work together to probe the incident.

Shortly after his arrival,Miliband met Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for talks on the regional security situation and other issues.

Miliband would also meet President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his stay in Pakistan and exchange views with them on various issues,including the need for a joint investigation of the Mumbai attacks and ways to defuse tensions.

The war against terror and the situation in Afghanistan is also expected to figure in Miliband’s parleys with the Pakistani leaders.

Miliband travelled to Pakistan after a visit to India,where he said Britain did not believe that Pakistani state agencies were linked to the Mumbai attacks. He also called for the prosecution of any Pakistani suspects involved in the attack within the country.

His remarks linking the Kashmir issue to terrorism did not go down well with the Indian establishment,which said it does not need “unsolicited advice” on its internal issues.

Miliband had said that the resolution of the longstanding issue between India and Pakistan would help deny extremists in the region “one of their main calls to arms”.