Centre to raise Jaish-e-Mohammed with Pakistan

New Delhi: The Modi government is expected to firmly tell Islamabad that it should now take strong action against terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) if it wants any progress on the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue between the two countries.

There are indications that New Delhi will take a key decision in a day or two on whether foreign secretary S. Jaishankar’s proposed visit to Pakistan in mid-January should go through as scheduled.

The government is likely to make it clear to Pakistan that talks and terror cannot go hand in hand. While the dialogue process is understood to be still on track, the strain is showing, with indications that it could be put on hold if Pakistan shows no signs of acting against such terror outfits.

With the Modi government caught in a bind over the course of action to be adopted vis-a-vis talks with Pakistan, the strategy on Pakistan was discussed by the government with former foreign secretaries and ex-envoys to the neighbouring country on Sunday, a day after the terror strike at the Pathankot airbase.

According to news agencies, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj held consultations in the national capital which were also attended by S.K. Lambah, G. Partha-sarathy, Shyam Saran, Shivshankar Menon, Satyabrata Paul, Sharad Sabharwal and T.C.A. Raghavan. Minister of state for external affairs Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd) and foreign secretary S. Jaishankar also attended the meeting. Government sources did not elaborate on the discussions during this unusual meeting.