In a joint statement issued by the heads of the Indo-Pak Track Two Dialogue Group, President of the Jinnah Institute, Sherry Rehman and Amitabh Mattoo of the AII, condemned the triple blasts that ripped through Mumbai on July 13, killing 21 innocent people and injuring 140.
Both Sherry and Mattoo expressed solidarity with the victim's families in the wake of such grievous personal tragedy. They condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and hoped that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. They hoped that this unfortunate incident would not affect dialogue between India and Pakistan and the attempt to derail the peace process will not find any takers among the people or establishments of the two nuclear armed states.
Sherry said that the people of Pakistan stand in solidarity with their Indian neighbours in the time of the grave tragedy, which have already caused severe damage to the people and state of Pakistan. They took the opportunity to remind policymakers that Pakistan and India had been making steady progress in the bilateral dialogue process recently and were poised to hold substantive talks at the ministerial level on key issues including trade, terrorism and Kashmir.
Progress on fronts for mutual co-operation is more likely to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on both sides of the border rather than aggressive posturing or an escalation of tensions between the two neighbours. They urged both countries to work hard at confronting terrorist forces together and sapping them of the hate-based ideologies these groups draw strength from. They stressed that it is essential to keep channels of communication open and encourage intelligence and information sharing between the two states.-PR
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