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New Delhi, Apr 13 (ANI): Terming the Indian foreign policy as one of meek ’surrender’, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday asked the ruling Congress Party to discontinue bilateral talks with Islamabad till Pakistan punishes the conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar assailed External Affairs Minister S M Krishna’s comment to continue the bilateral talks with Pakistan.

“This is a surrendered foreign policy. We condemn the attitude of the Indian government of this abject surrender. It has lost the moment and it has lost the opportunity to expose Pakistan. After (Tahawwur) Rana’s confession and after David Headley’s new revelations and naming the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) officers, who were involved right from planning to implementation to its last detail execution of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai,” said Javadekar.

He further noted that S M Krishna has continued to support the dialogue process whereas he has failed to expose the alleged militant actions of the neighbouring country on an international platform, with Islamabad continuing to shield the guilty.

“It is not doing anything to punish the guilty, the perpetrators of the 26/11. So, we are asking why is the Indian government so submissive, showing its leniency towards Pakistan and declaring by itself, without asking Pakistan to tell the truth, that the talks will continue?” said Javadekar.

“BJP believes from the beginning that terror and talks cannot go together. There is no meaning. This exercise of talking to Pakistan is a meaningless exercise,” he added.

However, assailing the BJP’s stance, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari raised doubts on earlier initiatives taken when the BJP headed the federal government.

“I want to ask them (the leaders of BJP) as to what were they doing in Agra after the Kargil conflict? What were Musharraf and Vajpayee doing at the SAARC session of 2004 in Bhutan or Nepal after the attack on Parliament? So before making a comment, they must first look back at their own deeds,” he opined.

As for the recent announcement by Chile about the arrest of an alleged mastermind involved in hijacking of an Indian Airline plane in 1999, Tiwari said the BJP ought to have thought twice before making comments that the present government delayed in taking apt action.

“I think there is a need to introspect, there is a need to think before speaking and ironically as the capture of one of the alleged masterminds of Kandahar (plane hijack) plays itself out in distant Chile, who are the people advising us on terror? People who went down on bent down knees in Kandahar? So I think they should think before saying anything,” he noted.

Chilean law enforcement agencies alerted Interpol last week about the arrest of a Pakistani citizen, who they suspect to be Abdul Rauf, brother-in-law of Maulana Masood Azhar, who was among the three militants released in exchange for the passengers of an Indian Airline plane IC814 in 1999.

Rauf had allegedly arranged the funds for the IC 814 hijack and was believed to be part of the planning that took place in Dhaka, Pakistan and Nepal.

On December 24, 1999, the plane was taken over by five hijackers, minutes after it took off from Nepali capital Kathmandu and taken to India’s Amritsar, then to Dubai, Pakistan and finally Afghanistan.

The hijack drama ended eight days later in Kandahar. (ANI)