The Hindu : Front Page : Provide unequivocal help to India, Rice tells Pakistan

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Provide unequivocal help to India, Rice tells Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

— Photo: AP

PRESSING FOR ACTION: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked the Pakistan government to provide “unequivocal assistance” to India in investigating the Mumbai attacks and to act “sincerely and quickly” in the matter during her meetings with Pakistani leaders here on Thursday.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s office made it clear that Ms. Rice was herself unequivocal in what she told the Pakistani leadership.

“[Ms Rice] urged the government of Pakistan to provide unequivocal assistance to India. Pakistan should be seen acting sincerely and quickly, she emphasised. Pakistan should also take the necessary steps to prevent any non-state actors from indulging in such activities against any country from its soil, she added,” according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, issued after they met.

As Ms. Rice sought to defuse the mounting tensions between the two countries over the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani troops conducted exercises in an area close to the Indian border while the Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told his corps commanders that the Pakistan Army stood for “peace and security.”

A military press release said Gen. Kayani, who chaired the monthly corps commanders’ meeting at the Rawalpindi General Headquarters, “hoped that peace and stability in the region will be maintained.”

The meeting discussed the security environment, according to the release, and Gen. Kayani “expressed satisfaction on the operational preparedness of the Army.”

Troops of the Lahore division, meanwhile, conducted exercises at the Tilla firing ranges near Jhelum in Punjab province.

A second military statement said the troops conducted “field firing and battle inoculation exercise” codenamed Battle Axe-52 “close to the operational environment.”

“This was the high point of a year-long intensive training exercise. The exercise encompassed application of firepower from aerial and ground platforms in synchronisation with tactical manoeuvres, involving fighting and supporting arms,” the military said.

The Pakistan Air Force also participated in the exercise, and a contingent of officers from the Nave War College witnessed the exercise.

There was no official word about Ms. Rice’s meeting with Gen Kayani. The U.S. Secretary of State told journalists that Pakistan must act with “urgency” on the information provided by India.

“This was a terrible attack. It was a sophisticated attack at a level of sophistication that we haven’t seen here on the subcontinent before. That means there’s an urgency to getting to the bottom of it,” she said. “There’s an urgency to bringing the perpetrators to justice and there is an urgency to use the information to disrupt and prevent further attacks.”

At the same time, she balanced this message with a good certificate of Pakistan’s commitment against terrorism.

“Pakistan is very committed to this war on terror and does not in any way want to be associated with terrorism elements and is, indeed, committed to rooting them out wherever they find them,” she said.

The improving relations between India and Pakistan just prior to this attack provided a good basis for their co-operation in investigating the case, she said.

As Ms. Rice worked on the Pakistani government, Jamat-ud-dawah, the front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group suspected of perpetrating the attack, worked on the media, laying out a show of its headquarters in Muridke near Lahore for a group of 30 international and Pakistani journalists.

A foreign correspondent who was on the tour told The Hindu that the group was shown a functioning school in the complex where over 500 boys aged between five and 17 years are studying. There is also a girls’ school in the complex but the group was not taken there.

The journalists were taken around computer work rooms, physics and chemistry labs, and told that the Indian media had created “hype” and propaganda about the complex as a heavily guarded and fortified place. They were discouraged from exploring the complex on their own.

The group was also shown a hospital where doctors treat patients from the surrounding areas for free. A spokesman of the JuD told the group that it engaged in a lot of charity work and that during the recent floods in Sindh, had extended that charity to several Hindu families too.

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