Pakistan and India hit a stalemate in their efforts to rejuvenate a stalled peace process after their top diplomats met for nearly two hours Sunday at a New York hotel on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The foreign ministers for the nuclear-armed arch rivals each described their private discussions at the Palace Hotel in midtown Manhattan as candid and useful, but each blamed the other side for their slowing progress in separate news conferences afterward. At the Palace Hotel, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna insisted to reporters that Pakistan must strenuously prosecute the leader of a banned extremists group that India has accused of carrying out attacks on its financial capital late last year. Krishna said India has “serious and continuing concerns about terrorism and extremist groups in Pakistan,” but he added that the two diplomats agreed on the overall need for “deeper, sustained and meaningful relations” between their nations. “I do not think we are in a position of no dialogue,” he said. “We have a legitimate concern that groups operating out of Pakistan continue to pose a great danger to our country and our nationals.” – Agencies Islamabad will take strong action against those responsible for the “heinous crime,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters at the Roosevelt Hotel five blocks away. But he also said New Delhi was putting too much emphasis on the case. He suggested India is taking a wait-and-see approach to pretrial proceedings now slated to begin Oct. 3 for seven Pakistanis detained over last year's deadly attacks.”I have suggested to my counterpart a way forward and a roadmap for the future,” Qureshi said. “We cannot confine our discussions to one issue, that is, terrorism at Mumbai.” Pakistani police in the eastern city of Lahore have placed under house arrest and issued a criminal complaint against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. New Delhi claims he masterminded the commando-style assault that killed 166 people in Mumbai. Nine of the 10 gunmen also were killed.”Pakistan wants to see this trial to its logical conclusion,” Qureshi said. The seven other suspects in the attacks also have been in court hearings in a prison in Rawalpindi, near the capital of Islamabad. Qureshi emphasized his willingness to go to India to negotiate.
