India - Pakistan Relation : Accusations Not Welcome
AFP has reported from Delhi that India’s prime minister on Tuesday said the
Mumbai attacks had the support of ‘some official agencies’ in Pakistan, and
said Islamabad was using terrorism as an ‘instrument of state policy.’ Pakistan
angrily rejected the allegations, accusing its nuclear-armed rival of embarking
on a ‘propaganda offensive’ that was ‘fraught with grave risks.’Indian prime
minister Manmohan Singh’s latest comments on the November 26-29 attacks, which
killed 172 people including nine gunmen, were seen as the strongest yet
directed at Pakistan.
‘There is enough evidence to show that given the sophistication and military
precision of the Mumbai attacks, it must have had the support of some official
agencies in Pakistan,’ Singh told a conference in New Delhi. ‘Unfortunately, we
cannot choose our neighbours, and some countries like Pakistan have in the past
encouraged and given sanctuary to terrorists and other forces who are
antagonistic to India.’ Speaking at a conference of chief ministers of Indian
states on internal security, the prime minister also said that cross-border
infiltrations from Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region had not stopped.
‘The governments in some of our neighbouring countries are very fragile in
nature. The more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an
irresponsible fashion,’ Singh said.The prime minister said the Mumbai attacks
were designed to strike India’s economic and security interests, and were
‘clearly carried out’ by the banned Pakistan-based outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Westerners were particularly targeted during the attacks to ‘convey an
impression that India was unsafe as a destination for the West and Western
investments,’ Singh told the chief ministers. Pakistan’s foreign ministry
issued a strong statement in response.‘The government of Pakistan emphatically
rejects the unfortunate allegations levelled against Pakistan by the prime
minister of India in New Delhi today,’ the statement said.‘Instead of
responding positively to Pakistan’s offer of cooperation and constructive
proposals, India has chosen to embark on a propaganda offensive. It will not
only ratchet up tensions but occlude facts and destroy all prospects of serious
and objective investigations. ‘Pakistan is a victim of terrorism... Pakistan is
not a state sponsor of terrorism,’ it added.The latest row came a day after New
Delhi said it had handed over evidence linking ‘elements in Pakistan’ to the
Mumbai attackers.The government also said it was launching a major diplomatic
offensive to maintain international pressure on Islamabad, which has so far
rejected New Delhi’s demands to extradite a number of terrorist suspects.
Islamabad confirmed that it had received the dossier, and the Pakistani
prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, again said he would take action if
‘credible evidence’ was provided. The material includes details of the
interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman — also known as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab
— who was the lone surviving gunman and who India says is a Pakistani
national.It also details the militants’ communications with ‘elements’ in
Pakistan during the attack, recovered weapons and other equipment, retrieved
global positioning system data and satellite phones.
The Pakistan president, Asif Ali Zardari, had previously said that the
gunmen who stormed India’s financial capital were ‘non-state’ actors.
We feel that such accusations by the Prime Minister of India is
inappropriate.It is too much for him to accuse Pakistan of state terrorism.It
is India, without any question , is carrying out state terrorism in Kshmir and
about a hundred thousand Kashmiris have died in the process.Kashmir is the root
cause of all tensions in the sub-continent and India did not want its solution
except on its own terms.We urge India to realize that any blame game will not
solve any problem.In fact, the long term solution of Indo- Pakistan problems
lies in solving the root causes.
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