Pakistan has to do more on terror front: Krishna
April 20th, 2010 - 10:11 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Tuesday said Pakistan has to do much more to mitigate India’s core concern of terrorism.
“With Pakistan, the core concern remains mitigation and removal of terrorism. We want Pakistan to do much more on this front,” Krishna said in Lok Sabha after a discussion on demand for grants for his ministry.
He asserted that it had been conveyed to Pakistan at several levels that “unless the question of terror is addressed by Pakistan,” India will not resume the composite dialogue.
Krishna reminded the house that India had suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan after militants sailed across the waters from Karachi to hit high profile targets in Mumbai in November 2008, killing at least 166 people. “We had to take other recourse in order to convey the righteous indignation of the people of this country and it was duly conveyed,” he said.
India has given several dossiers to Pakistan to take action against the mastermind of the attacks, especially Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who is still publicly spouting venom against India.
Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries met in Delhi Feb 25, when India again conveyed its concerns to Pakistan to do more on the terror front, Krishna said, asserting that it was an initiative by India and not at the signal of any other country.
“Very recently, we on our own, not at the signal of others, but on our own, invited the foreign secretary of Pakistan to come here,” he said. His assertion was significant as there had been voices in certain quarters that United States had been putting pressure on India to begin talks with Pakistan, so that the latter could concentrate on its western border in Afghanistan.
He said that India was willing to have another round of foreign secretary-level talks.
Both Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani attended the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, but met very briefly on the sidelines.
No meeting is also scheduled at the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to be held in Bhutan later this month.
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