India, Pakistan agree to restart peace talks

April 30, 2010|Associated Press

THIMPHU, Bhutan — The prime ministers of India and Pakistan agreed yesterday to resume peace talks between their top diplomats and work toward rebuilding trust shattered by the deadly 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani militants.

Officials said Manmohan Singh of India and his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, agreed on the need to normalize ties, dogged by some six decades of hostility since both gained independence from Britain.

They deputed their foreign ministers to meet at a later date to discuss the resumption of a wide-ranging formal dialogue that began in 2004 but was suspended after the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

The two prime ministers met for more than one hour in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, on the sidelines of a summit of South Asian leaders. It was their first meeting in eight months.

India’s foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, said Gilani assured India that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activity directed against India and it would expedite the trial of suspects of the Mumbai attacks it is holding.

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, signaled that he thought the resumption of the dialogue was a formality.

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