M A I N   N E W S

Pranab slams Pak for flip-flop on Kasab
N Ravikumar
Tribune News Service

Chennai, January 8
Foreign Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today slammed Pakistan for its ‘flip-flop’ over owning the citizenship of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist to have been captured alive during the Mumbai strikes.

“We have one of the terrorists in physical custody. He has told us quite clearly where he comes from, where he has received military and arms training from and where his handlers are located. Despite this, we have seen a consistent flip-flop in the reaction of Islamabad,” said the minister, while speaking at a plenary session on ‘India as an emerging power: The diaspora factor’ at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here.

The recent attack in Mumbai had brought about a huge international reaction, he said, adding that

it is important that anti-terrorist wings in all countries take cognisance of what happened in India’s finacial capital and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Asserting that such strikes “will not shake our resolve of inclusive growth” as India could manage multiple challenges at the same point of time, he added that “India can succeed in its journey only if this kind of sponsored terrorism is resoundingly defeated — financially, monetarily, militarily and politically”.

“Let us not forget terrorism knows no borders. All of us are vulnerable to terrorist attacks,” he further added. “As our ambassadors abroad, your words will be heard in multiple corners of the globe. I call upon all of you to join us in taking forward our concerns to the world,” he told the NRI gathering.

Islamabad needs to do more: Boucher
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 8
Declaring that Washington was determined to find out the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, the United States today bluntly told Pakistan that it ought to do more to fight terrorism emanating from its soil.

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher this evening met Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Gayatri Kumar, Joint Secretary (America) in the External Affairs ministry, at the South Block here and discussed how India and the US could intensify cooperation in bringing to justice the masterminds of the terror strikes in India’s commercial capital.

Boucher briefed his Indian interlocutors on the discussions he had held in Islamabad with the Pakistani leadership before coming to New Delhi. India is understood to have shared with the US official the dossier of evidence that has been given to Pakistan and other nations, proving the involvement of elements in Pakistan in the Mumbai incidents.

India is also understood to have pointed out that Pakistan was whipping up the war hysteria in the region rather than tackling the scourge of terrorism. It was also brought to Boucher’s notice that Islamabad was once again trying to mislead the world community by giving an impression that it was willing to cooperate with India in investigating the Mumbai attack. It had, in fact, not even taken sincere steps to implement the ban on Jamat-ud-Dawaa, the frontal organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is said to have carried out the Mumbai attack.

Menon is also understood to have told Boucher that terrorist camps had still not been dismantled in the neigbouring country and the terrorist infrastructure was also intact.

Boucher is believed to have told the Indian officials that US was determined to get at the bottom of the crime. He is understood to have told Menon that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team would soon visit Islamabad to carry out its own investigations on the basis of the leads given by India, establishing Pakistani links with the attack.

In a brief chat with reporters, Boucher said steps taken by Pakistan so far had not eliminated the terror threat. ‘’People responsible for the Mumbai attack have to be brought to justice and (terrorist) organisations closed down.’’

And in an attempt not to corner Islamabad, he said that initiatives taken by Pakistan so far were promising but underlined that there was a long way to go.

Meanwhile, US ambassador to India David C Mulford, who is set to complete his term in New Delhi, has, in comments that would certainly please India, said that Washington had de-hyphenated Indo-Pak relationship.

“Do not get back into de-hyphenation business,’’ he said in an interview to a television news channel, crediting outgoing US President George W Bush for this achievement.