Can’t equate terrorists with victims of terror: Pranab
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, once again, spoke out against the tendency to equate perpetrators and victims of terrorist acts and said that the commitment to fight against terrorism should be total.
By ET Bureau |
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has once again spoken out against the tendency to equate perpetrators and victims of terrorist acts, reports Our Political Bureau from New Delhi. ���The commitment to fight against terrorism should be total. Some-times, we find there is tendency to equate the perpetrators of terrorist acts and victims of such acts together and hyphenated. This tendency must be avoided.
Perpetrators of terrorist acts must be penalised,��� Mr Mukherjee said in South Afghanistan���s Delaram. The Indian government has only itself to blame for the growing premium for this ���tendency��� as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had endorsed this line during a trip to Havana. Mr Singh had said that Pakistan, too, was a ���victim of terror��� and that terror acts against India could have been undertaken by 'autonomous jihadi groups'.
The PM was forced to junk this argument in the wake of the Mumbai attacks after evidences piled about the involvement of Pakistani citizens in the attack. He now maintains that the attack on Mumbai had the support of even state actors. Coming to Mr Mukherjee���s Afghanistan visit, the two sides agreed to increased security cooperation as the two nations face threats from the same enemy. This move is significant and bound to cause unease in Islamabad.
India, which has pledged to invest $750 million in Afghanistan, is involved in major capacity building and infrastructure development projects. Afghanistan���s foreign minister said his country believes that ���there are some entities in our region that are using terrorism as a tool of foreign policy���.
Perpetrators of terrorist acts must be penalised,��� Mr Mukherjee said in South Afghanistan���s Delaram. The Indian government has only itself to blame for the growing premium for this ���tendency��� as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had endorsed this line during a trip to Havana. Mr Singh had said that Pakistan, too, was a ���victim of terror��� and that terror acts against India could have been undertaken by 'autonomous jihadi groups'.
The PM was forced to junk this argument in the wake of the Mumbai attacks after evidences piled about the involvement of Pakistani citizens in the attack. He now maintains that the attack on Mumbai had the support of even state actors. Coming to Mr Mukherjee���s Afghanistan visit, the two sides agreed to increased security cooperation as the two nations face threats from the same enemy. This move is significant and bound to cause unease in Islamabad.
India, which has pledged to invest $750 million in Afghanistan, is involved in major capacity building and infrastructure development projects. Afghanistan���s foreign minister said his country believes that ���there are some entities in our region that are using terrorism as a tool of foreign policy���.
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