INDIA and Pakistan agreed today to set up a “terror hotline” to warn each other of possible militant attacks, a move to build trust as the two nuclear countries get their peace process back on track.
Indian home secretary GK Pillai, the highest official in the home ministry, and his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhary Qamar Zaman also confirmed that an Indian team probing the 2008 attacks in Mumbai may visit Pakistan.
“Both sides agreed to set up a hotline between the home secretary of India and the interior secretary of Pakistan to facilitate real-time information sharing with respect to terrorist threats,” they said after talks in New Delhi.
The talks finished a day before the two countries play a high-profile cricket World Cup semi-final match in Mohali in the Indian state of Punjab.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has accepted an invitation from his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh to attend the game in a move being dubbed “cricket diplomacy”.
Delhi-based strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney labelled the new hotline as a “public relations” stunt.
“A line already exists between director-general of military operations of the two countries and from a practical perspective this new line does not change the dynamics of India, Pakistan relations,” he said.
