NEW DELHI: The bomb attack on the Samjhauta Express "can only add" to the urgent need for cooperation in counter-terrorism, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told presspersons on Tuesday.

Asked whether the countries would cut the rhetoric and engage in meaningful anti-terror cooperation, Mr. Kasuri said the first meeting of the counter-terror mechanism, set up in September 2006, would take place in Islamabad on March 6.

"When the President of Pakistan [Pervez Musharraf] and the Prime Minister of India met in Havana, they decided to set up an anti-terror mechanism. I am sure they were aware that this was a very serious exercise, and there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that they mean exactly what they said," he said at the Safdarjung Hospital.

According to Mr. Kasuri, the governments had agreed to hold a meeting on March 6 even before Sunday's incident. "Terrorism has become a worldwide phenomenon. We will need to cooperate with each other meaningfully. I have no doubt that the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of India had that in mind. If they have that in mind, there is no reason why that intention will not travel down to the officials."

Asked whether Pakistan had been able to crack the series of recent suicide attacks, Mr. Kasuri said the Musharraf Government's "tough and very resolute" stand against terrorism was behind the incidents.

Referring to the Soviet Union's presence in Afghanistan, he said: "When [the] Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the West — that is the United States and Europe combined — Pakistan and many other countries cooperated in the exercise of getting the Soviet Union out.

"In the process, not just Pakistan, but the United States, Europe and many other countries invited the young men of the Muslim world to come to the area you are referring to, which is the tribal areas on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, to come and fight the Soviet invaders.

"Soviet Union was, of course, thrown out, but Pakistan alone is not responsible for this entire activity. It's very easy to point [out] convenient scapegoats. It's an international responsibility, and Pakistan has done more than any country in this regard."

Mr. Kasuri felt that the six suicide bombings in Pakistan in the recent past suggested that its counter-terror actions had hurt the people involved in international terrorism.

The Foreign Minister, who visited the injured in the attack on Samjhauta Express, said, "I have just been inside, and I have seen the patients. Unfortunately, one of the patients died this [Tuesday] morning. Of the other nine, one is on the critical list. The other eight are improving." "They [the doctors] said they expect a 100 per cent recovery [for the patients]. I'd like to put on record our gratitude to the doctors, who are taking very good care of these patients. The Government of Pakistan has made arrangements for sending them back home as soon as they are in a position to travel. Needless to say, we will be guided by the doctors' advice regarding when they should travel," he added.

Samjhauta Express blasts photos

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