Joint Anti Terror Mechanism: Will India-Pak revive it?

New Delhi, Mar 14: The joint anti terrorism mechanism which was set up by India and Pakistan in the year 2006 is likely to be revived in a bid to narrow down the trust deficit. While India did make a move to ease out ties with Pakistan, the Pathankot came as a major dampener.

Since the tough talk from India, there have been visible attempts being made by Pakistan to wipe out the trust deficit.Post the Pathankot attack, Pakistan was never in denial that the terrorists came from their soil.

Further they were quick to register a FIR and also set up a team to probe the incident. Although the probe has been relatively slow, Pakistan has shown a certain amount of intent, India believes.

The intelligence alert that ten terrorists had entered India was shared by Pakistan and although it was not concrete or really actionable it still showed intent.

Reviving Joint Anti Terrorism Mechanism of 2006

During the talks held between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan (Ajit Doval and Naseer Khan Januja) the reviving of the Joint Anti Terrorism Mechanism was discussed.

The NSA largely stayed in touch over phone apart from one meeting at Bangkok recently. Both the NSA's set the stage to discuss the revival of the mechanism as they felt it would ease out the trust deficit apart from putting up a better fight jointly against terrorism.

Set up in the year 2006 this mechanism never took off. This was because the intelligence agencies of both countries never trusted each other.

There were allegations and counter allegations. Then came the 26/11 attack which pretty much shut down the mechanism. The relations had strained to a new low and the question of sharing intelligence between the two countries was out of the question.

Sources tell OneIndia that the foreign secretaries would have to work out the modalities. We have suggested that such a mechanism would help in the fight against terror, but whether the 2006 mechanism would continue in its existing form or a new institutionalized manner to share information would be set up is the call that needs to take when the foreign secretaries meet, the official also informed.

OneIndia News