Exchange of wanted people b/w India, Pak bleak

Islamabad, Sept 26: The chances for exchange of wanted persons by India and Pakistan remain bleak under their joint anti-terror institutional mechanism, agreed to be put in place by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart General Pervez Musharraf.

Officials in Pakistani Interior Ministry say that the two countries have been exchanging lists of the persons wanted by the either side through a different mechanism, Pakistani Interior Secretary and Indian Home Secretary.

In the last round of talks held between interior secretaries of the two countries in Islamabad this summer, Indian delegation had reportedly raised issue of handing over the most wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim but Pakistani officials had said that their country was not harbouring him.

Islamabad repeatedly told New Delhi that Ibrahim was not a Pakistani national and efforts should therefore be directed for tracing him out in India.

Even foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam had told a press briefing in Islamabad today that the joint anti-terror mechanism does not talk about handing over of wanted persons to other sides.

Mr Singh and Gen Musharraf, who met in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts at Havana on September 16, strongly condemned all acts of terrorism and agreed that terrorism was a scourge that needed to be effectively dealt with.

They also decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.

UNI

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