India is weighing its options for engagement with Pakistan, although no substantial progress in bilateral relations are expected as the neighbouring country is set to go to polls in few months.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale may have a brief interaction with his Pakistani counterpart Tehmina Janjua on the sideline of a multilateral conference in Kabul this week.
India has also invited Pakistan's Commerce Minister, Pervaiz Malik, to participate in the informal World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting in New Delhi on March 19 and 20.
If Malik comes to New Delhi, the possibility of him and Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu holding a bilateral meeting on the sideline cannot be ruled out, said sources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, also had a meeting with his counterpart Nasser Khan Janjua in Bangkok in December 2017.
New Delhi is keen to wait and watch the political situation in Pakistan, where a nationwide elections will be held later this year.
Sources, however, made it clear that India had no plan to restart its stalled formal dialogue with Pakistan, even as occasional engagements at the level of senior officials might continue in the coming months.
The soldiers of Pakistan Army and border guards are routinely flouting ceasefire along the Line of Control and undisputed stretch of the border.
The cross-border terror attacks by Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue. Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer still on death row in Pakistan. "How could New Delhi go for resumption of dialogue with Islamabad?" the official said.
The formal dialogue between India and Pakistan remained stalled since January 2013. The attempt to restart it from January 2016 was aborted after the terror attack at Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab.
Sources said that New Delhi had conveyed its "strong concerns" and protest to Islamabad during recent informal engagements over incidents of unprovoked cross-border firings and support to cross-border terrorist infiltration to India from Pakistan.
"It has been made clear that the government is committed to working towards normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan, and addressing all outstanding issues bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with Simla Agreement and Lahore declaration," said sources.
"However," they added, "any meaningful dialogue can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence."
New Delhi stated that the onus was now on Islamabad to create conducive atmosphere for dialogue between India and Afghanistan.
"Till then, India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross-border terrorism" sources said.