Pakistan denies India shared evidence of Mumbai attacks
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
By Mariana Baabar
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has categorically denied that India had shared any evidence with it regarding the Mumbai attacks.
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee while interacting with the media in Srinagar said on Tuesday that India had shared evidence with Pakistan, demanding that now Pakistan should take steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on its territory rather than giving mere assurances. Words must be followed by action, he said at a press conference.
Mukherjee said that sanctuaries of terrorists should be dismantled. He said the Mumbai attacks were not linked to the ongoing liberation struggle in the held Kashmir. Absolutely not. India has neither formally nor informally shared any evidence regarding the Mumbai attacks with Pakistan. We have requested them several times. Also, India has not made up its mind regarding our proposal to send a high-level delegation to India in this regard and our requests to take up our offer of exchanging information and setting up a joint investigation team, a Foreign Office spokesman told The News.
However, he added that contacts through diplomatic channels were continuing. To a query, the spokesman said India could contact Pakistan through the Anti-Terror Mechanism set up between the two countries or through diplomatic channels, which means either the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi or the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. But this has not happened as yet, he said.
The spokesman appeared tight-lipped about the recent meeting in Paris, which was attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian State Minister for External Affairs Anand Sharma, except to say that, This was a very good meeting on Afghanistan, a country whose stability is of great importance to us.
However, journalists who were present at the venue and the concluding press conference in Paris said whenever Sharma took the floor, he opened his remarks with the Mumbai attacks and ended with the same topic.
The participants told us that Sharma was very hawkish in his remarks and at times went too far. It is not clear whether this is how he always interacts or whether this was the line he was given by the South Block. His choice of words was unbelievable and he was certainly very hawkish, was one view from Paris.
The French media also did not bother much about Sharma during his stay unlike their interest in Qureshi who had nearly five hours of media interaction.He was certainly all over the French media even before the conference on Afghanistan commenced, was another view.
When asked about Qureshi, the sources said he was in his usual gentle and diplomatic self, trying to impress on Sharma that Pakistan was not shy of coming forward but it needed solid evidence from India before taking more steps.
Pakistan denies India shared evidence of Mumbai attacks
