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| The two leaders held one-to-one talks |
The Indian
media has welcomed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's talks with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh during his rare visit to India on Sunday.
One
newspaper said the "real test" for the two leaders "begins
now" and there were "enough spoilers on either side to limit the
possibilities".
It was the
first visit to India by a Pakistani head of state in seven years. The two men
last met in 2009 in Russia.
Mr Singh
said he had accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan.
After talks
with Mr Singh, Mr Zardari visited a Muslim shrine in Ajmer, 350km (220 miles)
south-west of the Indian capital.
The Indian Express said that the meeting between the two leaders had "gone according
to the script".
"The
lull in cross-border attacks and Mr Zardari's bold liberalisation of Pakistan's
trade policy towards India provided the positive political context," the
newspaper wrote.
"So
far so good. The real test for Mr Singh and Mr Zardari, however, begins now.
There are enough spoilers on either side to limit the possibilities."
The
newspaper said that the army, militant groups in Pakistan and Mr Zardari's
political opponents may come in the way of normalising relations between the
two countries.
'Lofty
symbolism'
In India,
Mr Singh could be constrained by "conservative elements" in his
Congress party, the Hindu nationalist main opposition BJP, and the
"habitual hawks" in the bureaucracy.
Writing in
The Hindu, analyst Saeed Naqvi said the "loftier symbolism" of Mr
Zardari's visit was the appearance of a large Pakistani delegation at the
shrine in Ajmer, which is dedicated to a Sufi saint, Moinuddin Chishti, and is
one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in the region.
 |
| Mr Zardari visited a shrine dedicated to a Sufi saint in Rajasthan |
"[It]
will strike a chord with an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis who are more
comfortable with the soft, humane message of the Sufis..."
The
Hindustan Times said the Indian prime minister had "re-asserted his
political position by engaging Pakistani leaders in a process aimed at
resolving outstanding issues in a 'step-by-step' incremental manner".
The Asian Age said that the lunch between the two leaders had a "positive
feel".
"After
the improvement in trade relations, marked by Pakistan recently agreeing to
India's long-standing demand of barring only those Indian goods that are on a
negative list, Mr Zardari's lunch with the prime minister in a conducive
atmosphere in the Indian capital will push the sense along that the mood is not
one of hostility, although Islamabad has done little to bring the Mumbai
attackers to justice," the newspaper said.
While the
two leaders met for lunch in private, a wide range of issues is said to have
been discussed.
According
to reports, the two leaders agreed that their home secretaries would meet soon
to discuss the issue of Hafiz Saeed, head of the Pakistan-based militant group
Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Mr Saeed is
accused of masterminding the 2008 militant attacks on Mumbai and Washington has
announced a $10m (£6.3m) bounty for his arrest.
India says
it has given Pakistan enough evidence to prosecute him but Pakistan says it
needs "concrete evidence" before it can launch any legal proceedings.
Relations
between the two countries have been gradually improving since peace talks were
derailed after the Mumbai attacks.
Mr Zardari
recently backed the lifting of trade restrictions on India, and Pakistan is
also talking of dropping a restrictive list of what products it will buy from
India.
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