New Delhi, January 4
Holding that Pakistan would have to give “cast iron guarantees” that its soil will not be used to launch a terror attack like Mumbai carnage, India has said that it would have to pay an “enormous price” if such a strike was repeated.
“What we now want is cast iron guarantees” that no state actors or non-state ones would be allowed to use Pakistani soil or sources to launch an attack on India, Home Minister P Chidambaram said, in an interview to a news channel.
“Guarantees have to come from those who control the levers of power and that means, the elected civilian government, plus the army. These are not guarantees that you can execute on a piece of paper. These are guarantees that have to be given to the international community,” he said.
Asked if Islamabad was capable of honouring such guarantees, Chidambaram said: “I think so, if all the power centres of Pakistan genuinely get together and guarantee that this will not be repeated. See, the price they will pay if this is repeated, I think (it) will be an enormous price.”
On if a terrorist in Pakistan takes this as an opportunity that in case he does a strike, India goes to war, he said, "I don't think we would be talking about war now. I think war is not the word I used… I don't know the mind of a terrorist but as I said a crime of this scale and size cannot be committee without active help. That is, I am entitled to presume that. And therefore, repetition of a crime of this size and scale means that aid and help continue to flow from the state.”
He also said that Pakistan's offer of joint investigation would be relevant only when it admits that Amir Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist caught during the Mumbai attacks, was a Pakistani citizen.
— PTI
