Don't want to get into 'slanging match' with Rehman Malik: SM Krishna

NEW DELHI: Refusing to get into a "slanging match" with Pakistan Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today asserted that mutual recrimination has to cease.

"We do not (want to) get into some kind of a slanging match with any distinguished person from Pakistan. Well, our efforts are directed for a constructive, cooperative agenda," he said when asked about statements made by Malik yesterday in Pakistan launching a bizarre tirade against India.

"I think mutual recrimination has to cease and we will have to look into brighter side that is available for both Pakistan and India," Krishna said.

The Minister's remarks came a day after Malik rejected Home Minister P Chidambaram's assertion of "state support" to the terrorists behind 26/11 massacre, saying ISI was a target of "propaganda campaign".

Chidambaram's statement that Pakistan was sponsoring terror acts came in the backdrop of the arrest and interrogation of LeT's handler Abu Jundal, who was in the "control room" in Pakistan giving directions to the ten terrorists who attacked Mumbai in 2008.

However, Malik, within hours of Chidamabarm's statement, sought to stump the arrest of Jundal.

"Now things are getting clarified. Who knows that there was a sting operation by somebody from India?" Malik had said without elaborating what he meant by "sting operation".