India, Pakistan likely to ink extradition pact

The two countries have also decided to stop talking to each other through the media and instead adhere to "quiet diplomacy", The News reported while quoting a reliable source.

According to the paper, sources in Islamabad, New Delhi and Europe have indicated that Pakistan had agreed, in principle, to invite Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani to Pakistan for discussing modalities of an extradition treaty and other related issues.

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Pakistani security officials have reportedly told New Delhi that modalities of the extradition treaty should be discussed in parallel to other issues.

The two countries have also agreed to resist the tendency of talking to each other through the media claiming that all details of the proposed treaty would be worked out through high-level contacts between security agencies, said the report.

The report further said that the US, UK and other world powers have endorsed the view that the Indian demand of handing over 20 wanted men allegedly in Pakistan, could not be fulfilled as currently there was no extradition treaty between the two countries.

The list of 20 terrorists was handed over to Pakistan after the December 13, 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.

AFP from Islamabad: Pakistani opposition parties rebuked President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday over his breakthrough deal to reopen formal talks with India, accusing him of making too many concessions on Kashmir.

"We cannot call it a historic event," said Raja Zafar ul Haq, leader of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, challenging Musharraf's proclamation that history had been made.

"Pakistan has substantially withdrawn from its stated position on Kashmir without any quid pro quo," he told AFP.

Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee issued a landmark agreement, after talking on the sidelines of a South Asia summit in Islamabad, to resume dialogue from February on issues including Kashmir, two years after coming to the brink of their fourth war.

They expressed confidence in their statement that the resumption of dialogue would lead to "peaceful settlement" of all bilateral issues including Kashmir.

Zafar said the joint statement marked a "significant change" in Pakistan's policy on Kashmir by omitting reference to United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a referendum in the disputed territory.

"But for the first time in 56 years this is not done in the joint statement issued in Islamabad," Zafar said.

"They are now seeking a settlement acceptable to both India and Pakistan."

Musharraf offered to drop Pakistan's demand for a referendum in the lead-up to the summit.

The Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) also dismissed the agreement as "one-sided".

"Pakistan is sidelining the UN resolution on Kashmir," said MMA executive Hafiz Hussain Ahmed.

"Musharraf has pledged to block the Kashmiri struggle from Pakistan's side but got nothing in return from India, not even a pledge that the 700,000-strong Indian occupation force will stop atrocities on the territory under its control."

Musharraf reassured Vajpayee that he would not permit any territory under Pakistan's control to be used for terrorism.

India has been insisting that militants based in the Pakistani-controlled zone of Kashmir cross the de-facto border in order to foment unrest in its zone.