The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan renews demand on train blasts probe

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Monday, Mar 05, 2007
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Pakistan renews demand on train blasts probe

Nirupama Subramanian

Joint anti-terror mechanism is meeting on March 6-7

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the first meeting of the India-Pakistan joint anti-terror mechanism on Tuesday, Pakistan has once again demanded to be shown the progress thus far in the investigation of the Samjhauta Express blasts.

The blast killed 68 people, most of whom were Pakistanis.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was in Karachi, where he distributed compensation cheques to the families of those who died and to the injured. He used the occasion to reiterate Pakistan's demand that New Delhi share the results of the investigation so far.

The Prime Minister said no condemnation of the attack was sufficient. Had the Indian Government taken steps to ensure the security of the train, it would not have happened, he said. Pakistan was taking all necessary steps to secure the train.

The anti-terror mechanism is meeting on March 6 and 7 in Islamabad.

The Indian side will be led by K.C. Singh, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, and two joint secretaries from the Home Ministry. The Pakistani side will be headed by Additional Secretary in the Foreign Ministry Tariq Osman Haider and two others.

Officials say there is no particular agenda for the meeting, the joint mechanism's first since it was set up last November based on an agreement between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf at Havana two months before that.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said the Samjhauta Express incident will be a test case for the joint mechanism, and that it was bound to figure extensively in the first meeting.

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