Ball in Pakistan's court on bilateral talks: India

Meanwhile, Pak PM Nawaz Sharif is chairing a high-level meeting to discuss Pathankot attack

Emphasising that India had not imposed any deadlines on Pakistan, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Vikas Swarup said the evidence for the Pathankot attack had been provided to Islamabad and the ball was in Pakistan's court.

But he implied that there would be no forward movement by India on Foreign Secretary-level talks until Pakistan had responded to Indian concerns. "There is a lot of time between 7th to 15th January, we will wait to see what happens in this time," he said at an official briefing.

"We have said that cross border terrorism should stop and wehave provided evidence (of it).We now await prompt and decisive action from Pakistan PM," he added. Swarup hinted at the structure and scope of the Indian Foreign Secretary's brief when he said the Pathankot attack had once again put renewed focus on challenge ofcross-border terrorism.

This means cross border terrorism will be one of the most important issues put forward by India in the talks. In the parallel, moving fast, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was closeted with top officials and ministers including National Security Advisor Nasir Khan Janjua and Foreign Advisor Sartaj Aziz to mull strategies on how to address India's concern without a domestic boomerang.

Although Sharif has reportedly told the Indian PM that action will be taken against groups if the evidence proves they were involved in attacks against India, thiswill not be received well inside Pakistan. However, while Chief of Army Staff, Gen Raheel Sharif said publicly that terrorism will end in Pakistan in 2016, he may have been speaking of the Zarb e Azb campaign against separatist groups within Pakistan and not the activities of anti-India groups.

How quickly Pakistan declares results on the Pathankot attack will determine if the Foreignn Secretaries will resume the dialogue.