June 18, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 13, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 17: Officials from Pakistan and India will meet next Tuesday to discuss counter-terrorism strategies and exchange vital information.

“The third meeting of the Pakistan-India Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism will be held in Islamabad on June 24,” a brief statement by the Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

The Pakistani delegation will be headed by Masood Khalid, additional secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs, and the Indian side will be led by Vivek Katju, additional secretary of the ministry of external affairs.

Besides resumption of the anti-terrorism cooperation between the two countries, the talks have assumed added significance because they are being held three days before Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s first visit to New Delhi on June 27, where he would underscore Pakistan’s commitment to take forward the peace process.

It is expected that the two sides would discuss, at the JATM meeting, the explosions in Jaipur, Ajmer and Hyderabad.

Pakistan is also likely to ask for sharing the findings of the Samjhauta Express bombing.

Sources said India would reiterate its demand for extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, accused by Delhi of masterminding the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

The JATM, set up in 2006 for exchange of information pertaining to terrorist acts and discuss counter-terrorism initiatives, was supposed to meet on quarterly basis, but in over two years of its existence it has met only twice.

The last meeting was held in New Delhi on Oct 22 of last year.

The revival of the anti-terrorism mechanism was agreed upon by the two countries during the meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Mr Pranab Mukherjee last month in Islamabad.

The two sides had on that occasion termed terrorism a scourge against humanity and had reaffirmed their commitment to fight it in all its forms and manifestations countries.

This was particularly evident from the striking absence of anti-Pakistan statements by Indian leadership after the Jaipur blasts.

Rather Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the blasts were the handiwork of elements trying to disrupt Pakistan-India peace process.

Moreover, both Mr Qureshi and Mr Mukherjee in their joint statement after the Islamabad talks, while announcing the revival of JATM, made a point to emphasise that both sides would refrain from hostile propaganda.