India, China ink pact

India and China on Monday signed a bilateral pact on security cooperation as New Delhi asked Beijing not to give shelter to fugitive ULFA insurgent group leader Paresh Barua and stop thwarting efforts to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group leader Maulana Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

China, in turn, sought India's cooperation on getting information on the movement of Uyghur insurgents in China's restive Xingjiang province and India has assured its assistance.   

The agreement on security cooperation was inked after talks between Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh and visiting China's Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi here on Monday.

Indian home ministry officials said Rajnath requested Zhao not to allow Paresh Barua, who leads the United Liberation Front of Ahom (Independent) faction, to move into Chinese territory and procure arms. Indian officials said the agreement signed on Monday could help India apprehend Paresh Barua .

During the meeting, the two sides discussed issues of mutual interest, including bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation and welcomed increased cooperation between India and China in the area of security cooperation, the statement said.

At the meeting, India raised the issue of China twice vetoing in the UN Sanctions Committee meetings proposals to declare Masood Azhar, the mastermind of a number of major terror attacks in India, as a global terrorist.

The meeting comes just a year after a two-month-long border stand-off between the India Army and the China's People's Liberation Army at Doklam on the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction.