Pakistan's senior representative in India has met the foreign secretary as the two countries get ready to restart stalled high-level talks over border issues.

The meeting comes only a day after Indian officials acknowledged having asked Pakistan for the two foreign secretaries to meet, a report in The Hindu newspaper said.

Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi, Shahid Malik, met Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to clarify the scope of the proposed meeting and also set a date, which could be before the end of February.

The initiative for reopening the talks, suspended since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, came from the Indian side, when Rao contacted her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir 10 days ago, The Hindu report said.

The announcement of a meeting comes as the Indian prime minister warned that the nation remains vigilant against terrorists crossing into India from neighboring countries. Despite fewer terrorist incidents in the northern disputed state of Jammu & Kashmir, infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan into India has risen, the prime minister said.

Left-wing extremism remains the greatest internal security threat to India, Manmohan Singh said during an internal security meeting. "Even though there has been a marked decline in terror incidents in 2008 and 2009 in Jammu & Kashmir, infiltration levels have shown an increase. Hostile groups and elements operate from across the border to perpetrate terrorism, and Jammu & Kashmir faces the brunt of this," said Singh.

He also said that fake currency notes are being printed and smuggled into the country from across the border, according to a report in The Times of India. He called for more coordinated efforts between India's states and the national government in New Delhi to tackle the issue.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram said while there has been no significant terrorist attack and no significant communal violence in the last 14 months, the country and the government should remain vigilant.

"That does not mean that there has been no violence or that we are not vulnerable to terrorist attacks, or that there are no triggers for communal disturbances. And we must reform our institutions and systems of governance in order to pre-empt terrorist threats and prevent communal discord," he said.

Chidambaram described Pakistan-based terrorist groups as "dark forces" that are "implacably" opposed to the country and asserted that they would be defeated whenever confronted.

The Press Trust of India reported that two people -- a senior police officer and a civilian -- were killed when militants indiscriminately fired into a crowd after Friday prayers in Sopore, a town of 75,000 people 35 miles northwest of the city of Srinagar in Kashmir.

Police officials said two militants emerged from a nearby orchard in Sopore town and opened fire on the crowd leaving a mosque.

Sopore is often called the "apple town" because of its especially delicious fruit, but it gained notoriety in January 1993 when members of the Indian Border Security Force, or BSF, went on a rampage, leaving at least 55 dead. Most of the dead were found in their burned-out homes and shops after a fire, purposely set by the BSF, ripped through the market area.

In Srinager last weekend a man was shot dead by alleged Indian paramilitaries, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.

The killing comes after another recent death, that of a boy, Wamiq Farooq, 15, who was hit in the head by a tear-gas shell as police dispersed a crowd protesting Indian rule. Farooq was reported to have been on his way to play cricket and was not a protester. The officer who fired the fatal shell has been suspended.

Meanwhile in the heavily forested state of Meghalaya in the northeast of the country, heavy gunfire was reported along the border with Bangladesh. Border guards exchanged fire following an infiltration attempt from the Bangladeshi side, the Press Trust of India noted. No casualties or arrests were reported.

Meghalaya is a hilly strip of land less than 200 miles long and 60 miles wide that borders Bangladesh to the south. The countryside, often impenetrable because of its subtropical forests, is noted for its high annual rainfall and biodiversity.