New Delhi - India expects Pakistan to take serious follow-up
action against elements it believes were behind the Mumbai terrorist
attacks by dismantling their infrastructure, India's Foreign Minister
Pranab Mukherjee said in parliament Thursday.
Making the first official statement after the Pakistani prime
minister said two men named by India were detained and were being
questioned, Mukherjee said: 'Please follow it up seriously. Exactly
the same scene was played after the attack on Parliament in 2001.'
Pakistani authorities had arrested militant organization
Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and some others and frozen
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) bank accounts after that incident.
But the arrested men were soon operating freely again and the LET,
according to Indian intelligence, started operating under different
names, including the charitable front the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
Mukherjee said India expected Pakistan to follow its latest
actions to its logical conclusion: 'Complete dismantling of the
infrastructural facilities available from that side to facilitate the
terrorist infiltration and terrorist attacks to India.'
Earlier, India's federal Home Minister P Chidambaram said evidence
gathered by Indian security agencies established conclusively that
militants based in neighbouring Pakistan were involved in the Mumbai
terrorist attack and hard decisions would be taken to protect the
country and its people.
'The finger of suspicion points to the territory of our
neighbour, Pakistan,' Chidambaram said while making the opening
statement on the November 26 terrorist attack that killed 179 people
including 26 foreigners.
'We will strain every nerve to defend our borders ... Given the
nature of the threats, we cannot go back to business as usual. Hard
decisions will be taken to protect the country and its people,'
Chidambaram said.
Mukherjee said people were deeply angered and outraged and
expected the the government to take 'resolute action' to convey the
message that India's territorial sovereignty could not be played
with. 'Nobody should dare to attack us,' he said.
Asked by a lawmaker why India did not attack Pakistan given the
evidence, Mukherjee said: 'I am making it clear that is not the
solution.'
He also said attempts were being made to provoke India through a
series of terrorist attacks. 'We are not provoked. We have no
intention of being provoked,' he said.
India had conveyed to the international community that the
Mumbai attacks were about global terrorism and not about India and
Pakistan, nor related to Kashmir, Mukherjee said.
The international community had to help Pakistan, he added.
Earlier, Chidambaram gave details of how the Mumbai attack took
place and said that there had been lapses in intelligence and
security and these were being reviewed and steps taken to rectify the
situation.
'South Asia is the eye of the storm of terrorism,' Chidambaram
said, while leader of the opposition LK Advani said Pakistan was the
epicentre of that storm.
His Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition alliance would
support the government in its 'hard decisions,' Advani said.
Describing the Mumbai attacks as a 'terror war,' Advani said India
should not be fooled by the cosmetic steps Pakistan seemed to be
taking against terrorist elements based in that country.
All the leaders stressed that it was time when all Indian
political parties and people, irrespective of their religion or
regional affiliations, needed to present an united front in the
battle against terrorism.
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