Islamabad: Pak-India Foreign Secretaries hold meeting

Talks between Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries have been started on Thursday in Islamabad. Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday to meet her counterpart Salman Bashir to chart out a roadmap for Foreign Ministers meeting scheduled to be held on July 15 in Islamabad. Pakistan's foreign ministry said issues such as peace, security and confidence building would be taken up for discussion during the one-on-one meeting between the two dignitaries today. However, Pakistan urged not to link the talks with terrorism and Mumbai attacks. On the other hand, federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that all the issues would be raised with India and added that the talks would be conducted in an open manner. He maintained that Pakistan, India and Afghanistan should devise a joint strategy against terror. BackgroundRelations between the two nuclear-armed rivals crashed to a new low after 10 Islamist gunmen went on the rampage in Mumbai, leaving 166 people dead after 60 hours of bloodshed in November 2008. India and the United States blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group based in Pakistan and linked to the Pakistani spy service. New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process and demanded that Islamabad bring to justice the perpetrators of what is considered India's September 11.