ISI chief involved in discussions: PM

V S Chandrasekar

On Board PM's Aircraft, July 11 (PTI) Stating that he
had not not "given up" despite difficulties in dealing with
Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday
disclosed that representatives of the two countries including
the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) chief had been involved
in discussions recently.

Ahead of the meeting he will have with his Pakistani
counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Egypt next week, Singh
said that after the discussions between him and President
Zardari in Russia last month "there have been discussions
between the High Commissioners and with the ISI chief and the
Foreign Office."

The Prime Minister gave no no indication of how and
with whom from the Indian side the ISI chief Shuja Pasha held
discussions but said, "they (the Pakistani side) have given
some suggestions ....some information on what they are doing
about punishing those behind the Mumbai massacre."

"Now we hope they would take some steps in that
direction (punishing the perpetrators) and with this hope I
will meet Gilani," he told reporters on board his special
plane while returning home from Italy.

Singh also sought to assuage Pakistani public
opinion by making it clear that he had not not intended to
hurt Zardari's feelings in any way when he had told him in the
presence of the media that "my mandate is limited to telling
you that the territory of Pakistan must not not be allowed to
be used for terrorism against India."

"I simply forgot that the media was present there,"
he said in reference to his meeting with Zardari in
Yekaterinburg in Russia. PTI VSC
DDC