Agencies/New York

India yesterday told Pakistan that peace on the Line of Control had to be a precondition to moving forward with bilateral talks.
Addressing reporters after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif held their first meeting here, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said the talks had helped both sides “have some amount of understanding of how to move forward.”
“We strongly raised the issue of cross-border terrorism, and said that peace on the LoC (in Jammu and Kashmir) has to be a precondition for normalisation of the relationship,” he said.
“My impression from the meeting was that it was useful. We need to work hard in the next few months to take it forward,” Menon said.
“Today’s meeting dealt with the relationship as it is today... we had to deal with what is overwhelmingly happening on the Line of Control... we dealt with the issue of getting it out of the way,” he said to a question.
Menon said both prime ministers spoke of the desire for better relations, and the difficulties that are in the way.
Menon said Pakistan had raised the issue of violence in its Baluchistan province and of India’s alleged interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs.
“There is no proof of any export of terror from India... wish I could say the same for the other side,” Menon said to a question on India allegedly fostering terrorism in Baluchistan.
Menon said that the two prime ministers decided to task senior military officers to “find effective means to restore the ceasefire” along the LoC.
The talks come after militants raided an army base Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, killing 10 people in an attack seen as aimed at holding back reconciliation efforts between the neighbours.
Menon said that Sharif also promised “there would be action” on punishing extremists linked to the 2008 raid on Mumbai, which killed 166 people.
Menon said the talks were friendly, but added: “As for how useful and productive the meeting was, I think the only proof will be in the months to come.”
Sharif, in his first talks with Singh since sweeping to power in May, has appealed for the two countries to improve their historically tense relationship.
Singh held his first talks with his Pakistani counterpart a day after the Indian leader demanded the neighbour must crack down on extremists for any improvement in ties.
Sharif, who has advocated an end to historic tensions with India since he swept to power in May elections, met Singh at a New York hotel on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
In front of flags of the two nations, Singh and Sharif shook hands and made small talk before entering closed-door talks with aides.
Sharif, in a speech to the UN General Assembly, on Friday called for a “new beginning” with India and denounced the developing nations’ years of intense military development as a waste of resources.
But Singh, while welcoming overtures from Sharif, said that the proof of good intentions will be whether Pakistan curbs extremists who have attacked India.
Singh said on Saturday that Pakistan, where virulently anti-Indian groups operate virtually in the open, must no longer be “the epicentre of terrorism” in South Asia.
“For progress to be made, it is imperative that the territory of Pakistan and the areas under its control are not utilised for aiding or abetting terrorism,” Singh said from the UN podium.
“It is equally important that the terrorist machinery that draws its sustenance from Pakistan be shut down,” he said.
Singh resisted domestic pressure for military retaliation after Pakistan-linked militants attacked Mumbai in 2008.
The Indian leader instead pressed Pakistan to prosecute the hardline group Lashkar-e-Taiba and has said he has been disappointed by Islamabad’s response.
The 81-year-old Singh, who was born in Pakistan before the subcontinent’s partition in 1947, has led India since 2004 and is unlikely to stand for another term in elections next year.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has tapped as its electoral candidate Narendra Modi, who in the past has been staunchly critical of Pakistan.
The meeting is the first between the two countries’ leaders since Sharif won May elections. Singh met in August last year with Pakistan’s then president, Asif Ali Zardari, on the sidelines of a summit in Iran of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Sharif, who earlier in his career maintained relations with Islamist groups, has tried to reassure India after his election as he puts a top priority on reviving Pakistan’s troubled economy.
After his election, Pakistan freed nearly 340 Indian fishermen in a goodwill gesture and Sharif called for greater economic co-operation with the larger neighbour.
While addressing the UN General Assembly on Friday, Sharif said he was looking for a “substantive and purposeful dialogue” with Singh to offer a chance for “a new beginning” with India.