On Monday, India asked Pakistan to come clean over the allegation of sponsoring terror network from its own territory to the subcontinent region. India has also put forward a demand to Pakistan to handover HUJI commander Shahid Bilal as soon as possible. Shahid Bilal originally belongs to Hyderabad and is a key suspect in the recent blasts happened in Hyderabad.

The Indian intelligence has been convinced about the suspected role Bilal played in the recent terror strikes in Hyderabad. Bilal has also been included in India’s most-wanted list of terrorists. Earlier, some reports had claimed that Bilal was killed in Karachi on August 30 but there has been no confirmation of such reports.

At the 2nd meeting of the Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism (ATM) in New Delhi, India and Pakistan started discussing for sharing information about the terrorist attacks occurred in both the countries. India has asked the Pakistani officials to provide proactive assistance to India for tracing Pakistan nationals who had suspected roles in recent terror attacks in India.

India has also demanded to bring the suspected militants to book soon. India has also asked Pakistan about the progress made in identifying a person suspected in the Samjhauta Express blasts. K C Singh, Additional Secretary (international organizations) in the External Affairs Ministry representing Indian team in the second ATM meeting being held in New Delhi. His counterpart Khalid Aziz Babar will head the Pakistan team.

The second meeting, which should have taken place in June, had been delayed as Pakistan`s points-man for the discussions - Tariq Osman Haider - Additional Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, had retired. Earlier, the setting up of the ATM in March this year was acclaimed by both the countries. India had said that if both the countries would meet on a quarterly basis, the beginning of an institutional mechanism to share credible information would be seen clearly.

The second ATM meeting should have taken place in June but the meeting has started after seven months of the inaugural meeting. The political analysts said that the internal troubles in Pakistan actually delayed the second ATM meeting.

However, Pakistan has said officially that Pakistan`s points-man for the discussions, Tariq Osman Haider Additional Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, who were nominated for the talks, had retired. The process of their replacement took time that delayed the second ATM meeting.

The Joint panel of ATM constituted after the crucial meeting held between Indian PM Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on September 16, 2006, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Havana. Both the leaders had decided to set up a joint anti-terrorism institutional mechanism for identifying and implementing counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations to restrict terror attacks in both countries.

Both the countries had agreed to exchange information regarding terrorist activities to track down the suspected persons of the past attacks and to prevent incidents in future.

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