India-Pakistan held 36 meetings between 2003-14, about to sign ‘peace deal’

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India and Pakistan have been sharing “deadly” borders ever since both nations bifurcated in 1947. There were instances when the situation seems out of control– amid the fact both had engaged in several wars.

However, a book published by former ambassador to Pakistan, Satinder Lambah, claimed that the two nations had held multiple meetings and were on the brink of signing a “peace treaty” but everything changed after the UPA-II government lost General elections in 2014.Quoting the excerpts from his book– “Pursuit of Peace”, Indian journalist Karan Thapar published a book review in Hindustan Times, where he said that former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had held multiple meetings with their Pakistani counterparts in order to reach a “peace treaty”.

“By the end of the second term of the UPA government and of Dr Manmohan Singh’s ten-year term, the draft agreement had been approved and was ready for signature,” Lambah wrote in his book which was published posthumously.According to the diplomat, 36 backchannel meetings were held between May 2003 to March 2014. From the Pakistani side, General Pervez Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif supported the backchannel, while from the Indian side, the diplomat claimed Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh pressed on.

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