ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: International diplomacy was defusing tension with India after the militant attack on Mumbai, and action against militant groups should reassure New Delhi, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.

Whereas a prospect of a military confrontation between Pakistan and India has receded in the two weeks since Mumbai attacks, India has said a four-year-old peace process is in jeopardy.

“Normalisation takes time,” Mr Gilani told Reuters in an interview.

The United States has been at the forefront of intense diplomatic efforts to stop tension erupting into a full-blown crisis between two countries that have already fought three wars.

“All our common friends and responsible statesmen are playing their important role in defusing the situation and I’m pretty sure that will work.”

Mr Gilani said Pakistan was taking its own action against groups and people put on a UN terrorist list, and the chances of India resorting to air strikes against militant targets were remote.

“I think India is equally responsible and they won’t. There is no fear of anything like that,” Mr Gilani said.

Mr Gilani said the latest crackdown on jihadi organisations would go beyond previous ineffective bans because UN resolutions gave the government a stronger legal position.

“Now ... we have to act according to the United Nations resolutions,” Mr Gilani said. The government of former president Pervez Musharraf banned Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad shortly after the two groups were blamed for a raid on the Indian parliament in 2001. Mr Gilani said the freedom movement in occupied Kashmir was indigenous, not state-sponsored and when pressed on whether his government would act against armed groups based in Pakistan and fighting Indian forces in held Kashmir, Mr Gilani replied: “Certainly, if Pakistan soil is being used for any such activity ... the law will take its own course.”

He said India had yet to supply hard evidence of Pakistani links to Mumbai attack, but hoped this would be forthcoming when foreign ministers from both countries meet in Paris.—Reuters