The Hindu : Front Page : Bring terrorists to justice: India

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Sunday, Dec 28, 2008
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Bring terrorists to justice: India

Nirupama Subramanian

Non-state actors forcing an agenda: Zardari

India denies troop build-up on the border
We will act against terrorists: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: India has told Pakistan that reports it was mobilising troops along its western border were without basis but has once again pressed the Zardari government to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice and take steps to prevent further terrorist attacks from Pakistani territory.

On Friday, Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal told Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir at a meeting in the Foreign Office that the anti-terror resolutions of the United Nations Security Council required the Pakistan government to take “judicial action” against the Jamat-ud-dawah and individuals designated by Resolution 1267 as “terrorist.”

Mr. Pal said the resolutions also required Pakistan to take “executive” steps, that is, act to dismantle the “terror infrastructure,” according to diplomatic sources privy to the meeting.

Pakistan, which conveyed its concern at reports of a troop-build up on the Indian side, was informed that no such thing was happening.

Pakistan wanted a response from India on its offer of a joint investigation into the Mumbai attacks. A senior Indian diplomat said New Delhi had not responded yet as it was waiting for Pakistan to act as it was required to by the U.N. resolutions.

President Asif Ali Zardari, meanwhile, declared his government’s intention of acting against terrorist groups which, he said, were “forcing an agenda” on the country, but warned that Pakistan would not be pressured by India on this.

“Yes, we have non-state actors. Yes, they are forcing an agenda on us,” Mr. Zardari told top members of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party on the first anniversary of the assassination of his wife and party leader, Benazir Bhutto, on Saturday.

Cautioning against allowing them to succeed, he said Pakistan had accepted that “we have a cancer” and would take steps to cure it because “we need it, not because you want it,” an apparent reference to India.

“Please do not test our mettle. It has been tested many times ... we will do it on our own time, not on your demarche,” he said, speaking at a meeting of the party central executive in Naudero, Benazir’s ancestral home in the Sindh province. He spoke about the suffering that “war or vengeance” held for the entire region, and appealed for “dialogue” which he termed “our biggest arsenal.”

Separately, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ruled out initiating a war, saying that Pakistan wanted friendly relations with its neighbours.

“We will not act, but will only react. Pakistan will not indulge in any misadventure,” he said in Naudero.

Keeping up the pressure - Editorial

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Pakistan: between a rock and a hard place

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India’s Pakistan problem is Pakistan’s problem too

Necessary but insufficient - Editorial

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