'Pak yet to take effective action'

Infiltration from across the border has not stopped, says S M Krishna

 
“We are still to see Pakistan take effective steps to end infiltration and dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism,” External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said here. He added that no meaningful dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad was possible unless Pakistan fulfills its commitment not to allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities against India.

Krishna was delivering the inaugural address to the second annual conference of the Heads of the Indian Missions abroad.

His remarks came on a day the Pakistani prime minister  told reporters in Rawalpindi that Islamabad was keen to take forward the composite dialogue with India started in February 2004 but was suspended following the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai last year.
Krishna on Monday said that evidences India provided to Pakistan had forced Islamabad to take ‘some steps’, but New Delhi expected more from its western neighbour.

‘Desirable goal’

He said that a stable Pakistan at peace with itself and the region was “a desirable goal” for India. He also reiterated New Delhi’s desire to address India’s differences with Pakistan through dialogue.

After India launched a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, Islamabad had arrested Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and three others for allegedly plotting the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai. But India has accused Pakistan of dilly-dallying over prosecution of the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) – a front of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) – chief Hafiz Saeed, who is allegedly one of the masterminds of the carnage.

Saeed was put under house-arrest, but he was set free by the Lahore High Court in early June. Pakistan has been stating that the evidences provided by India were not enough to prosecute Saeed. This prompted India to provide Pakistan with more evidences to nail the JuD chief last week.

Krishna on Saturday also referred to the recent infiltration-bids by terrorists from across the Line of Control (LoC) to Kashmir.

Krishna’s remarks indicated that New Delhi would cite the continued infiltration attempts as yet another instance of Islamabad’s insincerity to curb anti-India terrorist activities emanating from Pakistan. India is yet to respond to the Pakistan’s invitation to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to travel to Islamabad for parleys with her counterpart Salman Bashir.

The two prime ministers had agreed in Sharm-El-Sheikh that the Foreign Secretaries would meet as often as possible to review the progress of the probe into 26/11 attacks and report to the Foreign Ministers, who would meet on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly next month.