BJP against hot pursuit; CPI for talks to continue
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, July 15: As the Indian government pondered a tough line against Pakistan on Saturday, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party opposed a hot pursuit of suspected terrorists across the border and the Communist Party of India said it was opposed to any cancellation of talks with Islamabad.
Two Indian MPs, the CPI-M’s Brinda Karat and the Sandeep Dikshit of the ruling Congress party, called off their planned visit to Islamabad. They were advised by the foreign ministry against participating in a Commonwealth meeting on gender problems planned for Sunday.
Ms Karat was quoted as saying that the government had hard evidence to show that terrorists, of the kind of who set off bomb blasts in Mumbai trains on Tuesday, were being trained in Pakistan. The Communist Party of India, the CPI-M’s junior partner, however kept an independent line on the issues, canvassing with the government not to call off CBM talks with Pakistan as that would mean playing into the hands of terrorists.
The Press Trust of India said India on Saturday officially told Pakistan that the foreign secretary-level talks would not take place on July 20.
It said the decision was formally communicated to Pakistan and the new dates for talks meant to review the third round of composite dialogue have also not been proposed. The decision was conveyed by the foreign ministry to the Pakistan High Commission here.
Rejecting a suggestion made by a BJP colleague on Thursday that India should opt for a ‘hot pursuit’ strategy — meaning that Indian security forces should go after the terrorist infrastructure across the Line of Control — former foreign minister Jaswant Singh stated categorically that this was ‘not an option’.
He told The Hindu that the government could pursue other effective measures, while continuing to insist on the full implementation by Pakistan of the January 2004 promise to stop all alleged terrorist activity on its soil.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told a news conference that the Mumbai blasts had put a ‘question mark’ on the peace initiative with Pakistan as “it is becoming difficult” for India to take forward the process in view of the terror strike.
Mr Saran, however, emphasised that India was “very much committed” to the peace process with Pakistan and pointed out that New Delhi had initiated a number of confidence-building measures, most of which relate to Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the Mumbai blasts and grenade attacks in Srinagar would weigh heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s mind when he would go to St Petersburg for the G-8 summit.
The terror attacks in London a year ago found resonance in what happened at Mumbai.
The government wants powerful foreign leaders to convey that there would be zero tolerance for terrorism, Mr Saran said.
Dr Manmohan Singh would attend the G-8 summit as an observer along with leaders of other important developing countries.
He would leave for St Petersburg on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a news channel report said that a militant outfit Lashker-i-Qahar on Saturday sent an e-mail to one of the channels claiming responsibility for Tuesday’s serial blasts in Mumbai.
According to the TV channel, the e-mail message was received on Saturday evening, claiming that the outfit was associated with the Lashkar-i-Taiba.
The Lashker-i-Qahar said 16 people were involved in the terrorist operation.
The organisation said it was making their involvement public since all the 16 people involved in the operation were now safe in their places.
The message, sent through e-mail, said explosions were carried out in retaliation for the incidents in Kashmir and Gujarat.
