New Delhi: India is no longer interested in words or mechanisms but wants "actual action" from Pakistan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said on Monday.
Menon, who described the Mumbai terror strike as amounting to a "commando attack", told a press conference: "We are no longer interested in words, in mechanisms; we want actual action against perpetrators."
"We don't think there is any such thing as a non-state actor," Menon said categorically, in a reference to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari labelling the terrorists as non-state actors.
The Foreign Secretary had earlier in the day handed over to Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik in New Delhi the material linking the November 26 Mumbai attacks to elements in Pakistan.
"We have given them material that has come out of our investigation that leads to Pakistan. All the material leads to elements in Pakistan. We expect them to investigate, share the results with us. We will take it from there."
Referring to the fact that the Lashkar-e-Toiba had been banned but its front Jamaat-ud-Daawa was still functioning, Menon said: "What we have seen so far does not impress us."
He said India was seeing "an unprecedented level of international support" that was very heartening.
He added that he didn't know whether this was sufficient to induce Pakistan to act. "That is for them and Pakistan. That is not for me to say. The primary responsibility here is for Pakistan to act."
Pakistan must hand over terrorists: Congress
Meanwhile, Congress on Monday condemned Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's statement that Islamabad could not hand over the 40 alleged terrorists whose list was given by New Delhi since there was no extradition treaty between the two countries.
Party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters that according to a convention signed by the member-countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to root out terrorism, Pakistan was duty-bound to hand over the terrorists to New Delhi.
He said: "Pakistan had handed over people to the United States after 9/11 though there is no extradition treaty between the two countries."
"The way Pakistan had conducted itself in the last one month, it shows that the Mumbai terror attack was not just the handiwork of non-state actors and Islamabad was also involved," Tewari said.
He said the Government would continue to pressurise Pakistan through international community till it dismantled the terror infrastructure operating from its soil.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had also written to finance ministers of different countries to halt their financial assistance to Islamabad.
Comments
0 comment