A clear, written admission by Pakistan for the first time in an official document, a 36-page dossier, handed over to India that Lashkar-e-Toiba carried out the Mumbai attacks, terming Lashkar operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as the “mastermind” and admitting the Pakistan nationality of Ajmal Amir Kasab along with some others is said to have prompted India to be more accommodating with Pakistan at Sharm-el-Sheikh.

On a day when the BJP staged its first walkout in the 15th Lok Sabha over the delinking of action on terrorism from the composite dialogue in the Indo-Pak joint statement, sources pointed out that this was the “best possible” result given Pakistan’s insistence to resume the dialogue based on the contents of the dossier.

While the Indian side was clear that it would not start the dialogue until there is concrete, credible and visible action on the ground, the dossier was seen as a “progressive” step as it also came with a commitment to chargesheet the accused soon. This is expected to happen by tomorrow.

In this context, officials said, India did not want to be rigid in the conversation with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani while at the same time it did not want to be drawn into a firm commitment to resume the composite dialogue which the Pak delegation persisted with in light of the progress it had reported in the investigations.

As a result, the formulation in the joint statement, “Action on terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process and these should not be bracketed”, sources said, was the best the two sides could settle on.

... contd.