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Richard Holbrooke met with Pranab Mukherjee, India's external affairs minister, on Monday for discussions an Indian official said would include the issue of "terrorism emanating from Pakistan". The talks, which will involve security officials, follow Islamabad's admission that many of those responsible for last year's attacks on Mumbai in November, which left more than 170 people dead, were based in Pakistan. Bickering neighbors India has labelled Pakistan the "epicentre of terrorism" in the area, accusing it of harbouring groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is widely blamed for the November attacks. "Until the Mumbai attacks, the perception in Washington was that the US is fighting the global war against terror and that India was fighting a local war against terror," said Lalit Mansingh, India's former ambassador to Washington. "But that has changed. Now there is a better understanding that there is little difference between so called global and local terror groups." However, Abdul Basit, Pakistan's foreign minister, insists India has not yet "come clean on the multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy" and urges it to "expose the names of persons and entities in India who were also responsible for acts of commission and omission." Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior ministry chief appealed to India to clear up questions including who helped refuel the terrorists' boat that gunmen traveled in from near the Pakistani city of Karachi. Basit said Pakistan acted "with a high sense of responsibility and exercised restraint" and had "offered our hand of cooperation in the interest of regional peace and security," with regards to the investigation into the Mumbai attacks. Military aid New Delhi is also likely to discuss its concerns over the US providing military aid to the region. Pakistan is asking for billions of dollars to battle armed groups in its northwestern tribal area, which the US says has become a haven for suspected Taliban fighters who fled Afghanistan after the US ousted the Taliban in 2001. Pakistani military say they need increased support and equipment to overpower the Taliban fighters. According to reports, Islamabad told Holbrooke it would be better able to focus on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border if the issue of divided Kashmir was solved. But India insists that Kashmir remains "a bilateral issue" with Pakistan. India and Pakistan have had strained relations over Kashmir, since partition in 1947, fighting two wars over the disputed region. US ally Pakistan has been a vital US ally in the fight against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, but America's popularity in the region has suffered because of dozens of suspected US missile attacks against fighters inside Pakistan. Holbrooke was appointed to implement a new US strategy in South Asia under Barack Obama, the US president, who plans to boost troop numbers in Afghanistan and to prompt Islamabad to eradicate al-Qaeda safe havens inside Pakistan. Al Jazeera's Matt McClure, reporting from New Delhi, said that he had not been a popular choice among Indian diplomats. "They view Richard Holbrook as perhaps too pro-Pakistani in his tilt," McClure said. "When word started to leak in Washington that Holbrooke would be the man and that India would be included in his area of responsability, the Indian diplomats there were working overtime, lobbying very hard against his appointment." Following his visit, which completes his first tour of the region since being appointed to the post last month, Holbrooke will report back to Obama, and Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state. The US envoy's tour of India follows visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where security issues also topped the agenda. |
Holbrooke in India for talks
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