Indian blast
evidence to be considered seriously: Kasuri
New Delhi—Pakistan has assured India that any evidence presented by New
Delhi that shows the linkage of Islamabad to terrorist activities in the
neighbouring country will be considered in the same sympathetic manner
as the proof given by the US against al-Qaeda.
“Why should we make a discrimination? After all, terrorism is an
international phenomena and it hits Pakistan as much as it hits India,”
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri told Karan Thapar of
CNN-IBN in an interview broadcast Tuesday.
Kasuri was replying to a question on whether Pakistan will look at the
evidence provided by India with the same sympathetic consideration that
is given to evidence provided by America against Al-Qaeda
“Let me give you a more potent reason why we will do that. It’s in our
own interest. Pakistan wishes to develop very strongly (and) that is not
possible if you have acts of instability and terrorism all over South
Asia. That’s not in our interest,” he stressed.
Kasuri ended his four-day private visit to India Tuesday. He had
informal talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and both
sides agreed to hold “substantial discussions” on bilateral issues when
Mukherjee goes to Islamabad Jan 13. Kasuri’s remarks come nearly a
fortnight after India and Pakistan set up a path-breaking institutional
anti-terror mechanism to cooperate in counter-terrorism operations.
“Of course and we expect the evidence we provide will also be taken
seriously. So we have to develop trust on that ... We are not looking at
evidence of a quality that will get a conviction in a court of law,”
Kasuri said when asked if the anti-terrorism mechanism would take
seriously evidence of the involvement of Pakistani agencies in terror
against India. Kasuri also claimed that India and Pakistan have made
“enough progress” on the Kashmir issue and could resolve the dispute
over Siachen glacier and Sir Creek - the narrow marshland between
Gujarat and Sindh if both sides show the political will required for it.
He also stressed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Pakistan,
likely next year, will give a big push to the resolution of these
contentious issues.
“If you show progress on Siachen and also on Sir Creek and I think there
are grounds for saying that can be done ... We would definitely hope
that that happens ... This process will definitely go forward when Dr.
Manmohan Singh visits Pakistan,” Kasuri said.
Kasuri fuelled hope that “a way can be found” to address the Indian
concerns on demilitarisation of the world’s highest battlefield. He,
however, seemed hesitant to accept the Indian position on authenticating
actual ground positions of troops before redeployment and asked India
not to insist on conditions that can “compromise our own
position.”—Agencies |
