News
Friday, April 23, 2010
Pak asks India to disclose location of terror camps* FO spokesman Abdul Basit says New Delhi should share information on claims of another Mumbai like attack
By Iftikhar Gilani
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is prepared to run over the terrorist training camps of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) on its territory if India gives their exact locations, as there is no use just harping on claims that 42 such camps continue to function across the Line of Control (LoC), said Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit on Thursday.
Pointing out that LT is already a banned organisation in Pakistan, Basit told a visiting Indian media delegation that “we are telling them to tell us where these camps are, if you know about them tell us.”
He complained that India keeps asserting that these camps should be first destroyed for any dialogue to take place, “but when we ask them for details, they don’t come up with any,” he said.
Basit also asked India to share with Islamabad the basis for claims of another Mumbai-like terror attack. “When the Indian prime minister or home minister says so, they must be saying it on the basis of some information. Share that with us, so that we can pre-empt. Our request is to share any information, intelligence about it to enable us to take action,” he said.
Basit said that the two neighbours must cooperate with each other to prevent terrorist strikes rather than engage in a blame game. “Whoever is involved in terrorist activities will be apprehended,” he said, adding that Pakistan doe not have any evidence of linkages between the al Qaeda and LT.
Basit said Pakistan has still not given up the hope that a meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Bhutan next week may help revive the composite dialogue that India suspended after the November 26 terror attacks on Mumbai.
“Bhutan is not yet a missed opportunity. We still have time and we are in touch diplomatically. However, no formal meeting has been planned yet,” he said.
“In the run-up to Bhutan, Pakistan had proposed meetings of foreign secretaries and foreign ministers so that the two neighbours could announce resumption of the dialogue process in Bhutan. India is unfortunately linking it with the progress of investigations on Mumbai. The fact is that the trial is in progress and we have arrested the accused. There is a big gap in the evidence we received from India. But, our agencies managed to fill the gaps somehow. The trial is now in progress and the perpetrators will be brought to book,” he said.
The foreign office spokesman pointed out that bringing the culprits to justice is a very complex issue as the trial is in the hands of the judiciary and it has both internal and external dimensions. “Still, you will not find Pakistan wanting,” he said, pointing out that Islamabad had, in fact, proposed to India to conduct joint investigations into the Mumbai attack or deal with it through the Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism (JATM) established by the two countries. Asked why Pakistan drags feet on effective action against LT chief Hafiz Saeed despite India providing dossiers on his mastermind role in the November 26 attack, Basit said, “I don’t hold brief for Hafiz Saeed. We arrested him. Have you arrested Bal Thackeray for making hate speeches against Pakistan.”
On Islamabad harping on the revival of the composite dialogue process when talks can be held in a new format at different levels, Basit said results of the process that India suspended were quite encouraging as it helped in convergence of views on various issues.
“It helped us sign prior notification of missile trials, it helped us in ceasefire and to agree on confidence building measures on Kashmir. It created a congenial atmosphere as well.”
He pointed out that disputes like Siachen cannot be settled unilaterally. “We had made enormous progress on Siachen and Sir Creek. These issues can be handled quickly if the dialogue is resumed,” he said.
However, when pre-conditions are attached to the dialogue, then it is better not to have any dialogue, Basit said, pointing out that there was no use of the foreign secretaries meeting again and again and dwelling on the same points.
Basit complained that efforts on the part of India were to project happenings in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), as a terrorist struggle, which was not acceptable to Pakistan.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk