India to raise Pak 'spoofing'

Bilateral relations depend on action taken: SMK

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is expected to take it up the issue with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, when the duo will meet at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt in the middle of this month.

Sharm-el-Sheikh is the venue of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit. Menon and Bashir are likely to meet at Sharm-el-Sheikh and review the steps taken by Islamabad so far to bring to justice the masterminds and perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. The parley between the foreign secretaries is to precede a meeting between the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the summit.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Wednesday indicated that New Delhi would take up with Islamabad the issue of ‘spoofing’ of terrorists’ satellite phones with the help of transmitters to foil efforts to track them.

“We always take up (issues) whenever something bothers us or Pakistan. We always take up (issues) mutually,” Krishna told journalists outside the Parliament. He was reacting to latest media-reports on ‘spoofing’ of satellite phones used by the terrorists based in Pakistan.

India and Pakistan had started a Composite Dialogue in February 2004, but New Delhi suspended it in the wake of the attacks in Mumbai, stating that the parlance could only be resumed if Islamabad took credible actions against the terrorists. Pakistan, however, has been seeking resumption of dialogue with India and also got support from the US with Washington stating that it would like to see the two nuclear neighbours in South Asia resolve differences through dialogue.

Krishna also told the Lok Sabha that the Prime Minister  had conveyed to Zardari “India’s expectation that the Government of Pakistan would honour its commitments to take strong and effective action to prevent then use of Pakistani territory for terrorist attacks on India”. He said that New Delhi wanted friendly relations with Islamabad and leaders of the two countries would use every available opportunity in the international forums to meet and make efforts in that direction.

Krishna, however, reiterated that Pakistan would have to visibly exhibit its resolve to fight terror. “These will be factored in our response,” he said.

DH News Service