Pak wants good ties with India, says dealing with terrorism generically self-defeating
February 25th, 2010 - 8:10 pm ICT by ANINew Delhi, Feb.25 (ANI): Visiting Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Thursday said it was important for the governments of both Pakistan and India to show political will to resolve key bilateral issues like Kashmir and the water dispute, and added that dealing with the issue of terrorism in a generic manner is a self-defeating exercise.
Addressing a press conference here, Bashir said both nations had a responsibility to maintain peace in South Asia, and added that it was unfair, counter-productive and unrealistic to link the progress in the investigations into the 26/11 attacks and other incidents of terror to the overall progress of bilateral talks.
He said Pakistan’s number one priority was to deal with the threat of terrorism, and the international community is aware of the country being a major victim of terrorist attacks.
However, he added that India’s concern on terror-related incidents was valid.
When asked specifically about what the Pakistan Government is doing to investigate the role of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in the 26/11 attack, Bashir said: “The docket on Saeed (submitted by India) is a piece of literature, not evidence.”
He also said the issue of Kashmir was discussed between the two sides extensively, and not briefly as mentioned in some media reports.
“Kashmir can be addressed in a more meaningful manner through the composite dialogue process. We did voice our concerns over the human rights violation in Kashmir. The focus of our talks (with the Indian side) was Kashmir,” Bashir said, adding that for Pakistan, Kashmir is still and will remain a core issue.
Islamabad, Bashir said, is for the resumption and revival of the composite dialogue. Pakistan, he said wants to reverse the regression into which its ties with India have slipped.
He said the talks with the Indian delegation were broad-based, and there was no need to apply any adjective to them.
“It was an honest effort made by both sides to come forward, to meet and assess where we are. We will continue to endeavour in every manner possible to engage with India,” Bashir said. (ANI)
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Tags: adjective, bashir, bilateral issues, bilateral talks, composite dialogue, core issue, hafiz, hone, human rights violation, indian delegation, islamabad, kashmir, meaningful manner, pakistan government, regression, resumption, saeed, salman, South Asia, water dispute