NEW DELHI, Feb 12: India on Thursday welcomed the arrest of Mumbai terror suspects by Pakistan as a positive step and hoped that Islamabad would take more credible measures to dismantle alleged infrastructure used by militants for cross-border raids.
A foreign ministry statement in New Delhi said India’s High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal met Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir who informed him officially of Islamabad’s response to New Delhi’s dossier given last month.The dossier had “material that we had made available to Pakistan on January 5 linking the terrorist attacks on Mumbai to perpetrators in Pakistan”, India’s foreign ministry said.
“In their official response, the Pakistan authorities have admitted that elements in Pakistan were involved in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. They are still in the process of investigating the attacks, and have taken certain actions including the arrest of some of those who were involved and filing a first information report. This is a positive development,” the statement said.Pakistan has also sought further information and material relating to the investigation. “The government of India will now examine the issues raised in the response by Pakistan. After that examination we will share whatever we can with Pakistan,” the Indian statement said.
“It remains India’s goal to bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai to book, and to follow this process through to the end. We would also expect that the government of Pakistan take credible steps to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan.”
Private and semi-official analysts had a field day. Many preferred to give credit for the positive turn of events not to Pakistan but to the US pressure or to intervention by other foreign governments. They noted that Thursday’s developments came in the presence in Islamabad of US special envoy Richard Hollbrooke. Not everyone grudged Pakistan a compliment though. A couple of defence analysts told TV viewers whatever steps were taken by Pakistan had been professionally handled and needed to be welcomed.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee issued a shorter version of his ministry’s statement. He too broke from a spate of hardline statements and welcomed as positive steps listed by Mr Rehman Malik and Mr Bashir to the Indian high commissioner.
Even the Indian parliament, which began its last session from Thursday before the general polls in April, heard words of comfort and cheer in the battle against terrorism. President Pratibha Patil, who addressed a customary joint meeting of both houses of parliament, said India had emerged stronger from the nightmare of terrorism.
“Looking back, we see hope,” she said. “We have not only withstood the challenges but also emerged stronger. The spirit of ordinary people rising together as one overcame the challenge to our nation from terrorist violence.”
Mrs Patil used the occasion to portray the large turnout of voters in Jammu and Kashmir as “a resounding affirmation of their faith in democracy and a rejection of terrorism and violence. The elections have brought new hope to the people of that state,” she said.
She bunched the Mumbai attacks with “the terrorist incidents in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Assam and before that on our Embassy in Kabul” which she said were “an assault on all the values that our country stands for. The attack in Mumbai was deliberately planned to retard our economic progress”.Mrs Patil said the international community greatly appreciated “the threat that exists to the region and the world from the terrorism emanating from Pakistan”.
Extremism remained a major concern in several states. “My government has adopted a holistic approach to tackle this problem in close coordination with the affected states through modernisation of police forces and better implementation of socio-economic development programmes for the most backward regions. Similarly, several initiatives were taken to deal with the problem of insurgency in the northeast.”