India, Pakistan to hold trust-building talks today

India and Pakistan are set to kick off a string of back-to-back meetings, starting with talks between their foreign secretaries today that are aimed at bridging post-26/11 trust deficit and exploring ways to revive dialogue between them.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will fly to Islamabad along with Home Secretary GK Pillai Wednesday for talks with their Pakistani counterparts.
Rao will hold wide-ranging talks with Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir that will cover an entire gamut of bilateral issues, including terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, confidence-building measures and the Indus water dispute.
All issues are on table, including Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said here ahead of the talks.
From India's point of view, terror will top the agenda.
During delegation-level discussions, India will press for the speedy trial of seven 26/11 terror attacks suspects in Pakistan, concrete action against Hafiz Saeed, the suspected mastermind of the Mumbai carnage, and against those groups based in Pakistan nurturing anti-India agenda.
Ten terrorists had held Mumbai hostage for 60 hours from Nov 26, 2008, killing 166 innocent men, women and children.
Rao is also expected to take up a recent spike in cross-border infiltration and ceasefire violations that are marring the spirit of thaw that followed the summit talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani in Thimphu nearly two months ago.
Manmohan Singh and Gilani had directed their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to meet and work out modalities of restoring trust between the two countries.
Signalling India's intention to revive dialogue, official sources said here India was going into these talks in 'an exploratory, not an accusatory way.’