Composite Dialogue Process with Pak under stress : India

New Delhi, Jul 21 (UNI) India, for the first time, today admitted that the Composite Dialogue Process (CDP) with Pakistan is ''under stress'' and a series of events in the past had vitiated the atmosphere between the two countries.

''Several events in the past have vitiated the atmosphere...

The Composite Dialogue Process is under stress...there have been public statements in Pakistan reverting to old polemics,'' Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said.

Mr Menon, who was addressing a press conference after talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir to launch the fifth round of the CDP, said certain public statements made by Pakistani leaders and militant leaders in the recent past were responsible for vitiating the atmosphere.

''The public statements in Pakistan by some political leaders indicated that they were reverting to old polemics,'' he said.

He said the sequence of events had culminated in the suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan in which five emabassy staffers including Defence Attache and Counsellor were killed.

India had information that a ''couple of elements'' were behind the blast in Afghanistan and both sides had come to a point where they are able to discuss and India expected its concerns to be addressed.

He, however, declined to identify the elements saying investigations were still on.

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