Pakistan today gave no clear assurance towards addressing India's concerns on terrorism, instead raked up Kashmir issue and "external interference" by India in Balochistan.
"Terrorism was discussed. We are aware of your concerns on terrorism, and I think our concerns are also known to the Indian side," Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said, while briefing reporters on the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
"Prime Minister Sharif also emphasised on external interference in Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan," Jilani said. "I have no doubt that today's meeting discussed all issues including Jammu and Kashmir," he added.
Describing Kashmir as a "very important issue", Jilani said this needs to be resolved. "We witnessed an equal willingness on the part of the two leadership in an amicable manner," he said.
Responding to questions on Hafeez Saeed and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Jilani refrained from giving any commitment and said that there is "willingness and commitment" on the part of both sides to discuss the terrorism issues including that of JuD and Hafeez Saeed.
Jilani described the meeting as "very positive and constructive." Sharif, according to Jilani during the meeting, emphasised that the two countries have no option but to sustain peaceful dialogue between the two countries.
"The leaders expressed their commitment to have better relationship between the two countries. During the meeting the two leaders also all issues and factors which have contributed to the present state of relationship between our two countries," he said.
India raised the issue of continued cross-border terrorism and the support groups like Jamaat-ud-Dawa led by Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed get from the Pakistan government.
Responding to the allegations, Jilani said schools andother educational institutions being run by JuD have now been taken over by provincial government of Pakistan at the direction of Islamabad in compliance with the UN Security Council resolution in this regard.
He claimed that the monitoring team of the UN which had recently visited the country in its report had found nothing about Pakistan violating the UN Security Council resolution in this regard.
The UN team in a recent report expressed full satisfaction over the implementation of the UNSC resolution, he said. "There is no alternative to a peaceful, sustained and uninterrupted dialogue. We need to have an interaction on a regular basis to address all our outstanding issue," he said.
Responding to a question on the recent remarks of Singh about "epicenter of terrorism" Jilani said this was not raised. "It (epicenter of terrorism) was not raised during the meeting. Terrorism was discussed but in the context that you are talking about," Jilani said.
The Pakistani official said the Mumbai investigations have slowed down because of the delay in the visit of the Judicial Commission to India, After their recent visit, they would submit the report, and the trail process would be speeded up, he said.