ISLAMABAD, July 21: Pakistan on Friday rejected what it called a “rehash of baseless allegations” made by the spokesperson of Indian Ministry of External Affairs in response to President Musharraf’s offer to help in investigations into the Mumbai blast on the basis of concrete evidence.
“The fact that after 10 days of the Mumbai blasts, the Indian spokesman has little to say other than to mention Daud Ibrahim or Hizbul Mujahideen chief demonstrates that there was nothing to warrant the irresponsible act of finger-pointing at Pakistan immediately after the Mumbai attack,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said, adding: “This has become a routine with India.”
She pointed out that even on occasions earlier, similar Indian accusations were belied by independent enquiries such as in the case of Chittisinghpura incident of March 2000 and the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament which exposed involvement of elements internal to India.
The spokesperson said since the resumption of composite dialogue in 2004, both sides had exchanged lists of wanted persons at the Interior/Home Secretaries’ talks.
“We have further given evidence of terrorist infrastructure on the Indian soil that operates against Pakistan,” the FO spokesperson said, adding that Pakistan had yet to get any response from the Indian side. She said it had been made clear that the Indian list included persons who were either not in Pakistan or some of those who had been associated with the Kashmiri freedom struggle.
