India-Pak NSA talks- Officials told: No room for error in most-wanted list

In 2011, the Home Ministry had handed Islamabad a list of India’s 50 most-wanted in Pakistan during the official dialogue process. But to the embarrassment of the government, it turned out that two terrorists were in India — one in jail, the other out on bail.

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Later, Home Minister P Chidambaram had said that the mistake must be treated as a “genuine oversight or a human error”. The BJP, which was in the opposition then, had questioned the competence of the Congress-led government.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had blamed Mumbai Police and the Intelligence Bureau for the goof-up over the inclusion of Mumbai-based Wazhul Kamar Khan in the list of 50 most-wanted fugitives hiding in Pakistan.

A South Block official, privy to the preparations for the NSA-level talks this Sunday, said: “The goof-up had consequences on our credibility, when it came to handing over dossiers to Pakistan. It dented our efforts to corner Islamabad on terrorism, and hurt our credibility because Pakistan went to town with our mistake. So this time, all agencies and officials have been asked to verify every bit of information as the NSAs sit down for talks.”

New Delhi expects the list of 48 to increase since a great deal of information has been made available on the basis of counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States and other countries since 2011.