The signing of the additional protocol on terrorism at the 12th SAARC summit in Islamabad is likely to put pressure on "Indian-sponsored" terrorism in at least three SAARC nations, according to a report in the Daily Mail, a Pakistani newspaper, on January 5.
"Nepal King's [Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev] murder goes to RAW's [Research and Analysis Wing] credit..." said the "special report" from the paper's "investigation cell".
According to the article, "a western intelligence agency has provided Kathmandu with reasonable undeniable evidences of Indian hand in the murder of Nepalese King Birendra along with other members of the royal family by Nepalese Crown Prince Dipendra.
"Though this royal massacre was attributed to the prince's love affair, it had a great conspiracy behind it as the said western intelligence officials had provided Kathmandu with solid reports [of the] prince being cultivated by RAW for years.
"The intelligence reports in this direction suggest that King Birendra was murdered when he was to announce a major decision about RAW's operational freedom in Nepal and planned to cut down RAW activities in his country, which had virtually become second RAW home by then.
"Besides, Nepalese government also have sufficient and concrete evidences of comprehensive Indian support to Maoist separatists and very strongly believe that Maoist rebels were getting military training arms supplies and finances from India."
It also claimed that underworld don Chhota Rajan is an Inter-Services Intelligence agent who has been advised to lie low after the assassination attempt on him in Bangkok.
The Thai government's offer to deport Rajan to India was met with a lukewarm response from New Delhi, and he was finally extradited to Vietnam at India's behest, the paper said.
It said Sri Lankan military officials "believe on the basis of substantive evidences and some undeniable proofs that Delhi is still sponsoring, financing and arming" Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorists.
The report appeared the day Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf met for the first time since the aborted Agra summit in July 2001.
"Detailed discussions were held, and the meeting was held in a good atmosphere," Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said.
While both Indian and Pakistani officials remained tight-lipped over what precisely was discussed, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said, "Both leaders welcomed the recent steps towards normalisation of relations between the two countries and expressed the hope that the process will continue.
"The fact that the prime minister came to Islamabad to attend the SAARC summit, the fact that the prime minister met President Musharraf, that I have met my counterpart and the foreign secretaries have met, is progress. Please look at it that way, I do not think there is any other way to describe it."
In an indication that the two sides had rehearsed and coordinated their version of the meeting, Pakistan foreign office spokesman Masood Khan told journalists: "The two leaders discussed the positive impact of the recent confidence-building measures and hope that their momentum would be maintained. I want to make clear that I have not revealed the content of their discussions, only the context in which they were held."
But unofficially, Pakistani officials said while Pakistan had brought up the issue of Kashmir, India had brought up terrorism.
Earlier in the day, Vajpayee told journalists after laying a foundation stone of an extension to the Indian high commission in Islamabad: "The two sides have to realise each other's problems and we have to find a way out together... Good relations with Pakistan are a big responsibility. New questions have come up and new answers are being sought."
But reports like the one in the Daily Mail indicate that not everyone is happy with the thaw in relations. Pakistani journalists repeatedly grilled the foreign ministry spokesman on what Pakistan had received in return for the concessions made by Musharraf, including the ceasefire on the border.
"Doesn't anyone want to ask anything about SAARC?" was Masood's plaintive query at the press conference, where he was bombarded with questions on what transpired at the Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting.
But while many Pakistani journalists concurred with the Daily Mail's claims that India was sponsoring terror in SAARC states and the recent additional protocol, which attempts to check financing of terrorism, would give member states a handle to take on India, others dismissed it as preposterous.
"India has seized the advantage," said a senior columnist who declined to be named. The impression in Pakistan was that Musharraf was giving away too much, too soon, he added. "But such reports only vitiate the atmosphere, which has finally started showing an improvement in many, many years."
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