India, Pak foreign secys to meet regularly: PM

NEW DELHI: Sources in Congress were upset with the mention of Balochistan in the joint statement signed between PM Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Yousaf Gilani in the sidlines of the NAM summit at Sharm el-Sheikh , Egypt. The worry was over the risk of giving Pakistan room to fling the terror charge back at India at a time of its choosing.

However, the PM argued, ���It only strengthens our stand that we would like Pakistan not to wait for resumption of the composite dialogue as and when it takes place. But take action against terrorist elements regardless of these processes that may lead to the resumption of the dialogue.���

In his statement in the two Houses as well as replies to queries from Arun Jaitley and Sitaram Yechury in the Rajya Sabha, the PM stressed that in his talks with his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani , he stuck to India���s bottomline that ���sustained, effective and credible action needs to be taken not only to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice, but also to shut down the operations of terrorist groups so as to prevent any future attacks��� .

He also denied that India had made any commitment to return to the table for composite dialogue irrespective of what Pakistan does vis-ivis its concerns about terrorism . ���Whether, when and in what form we broaden the dialogue with Pakistan will depend on future developments . For the present, we have agreed that the foreign secretaries will meet as often as necessary,��� he said.