Mumbai attackers 'creations of ISI': Menon
Describing "organisers" of Mumbai and Kabul embassy attacks as "clients and creations" of Pakistan's ISI, India has said those behind the carnages are known to prepare for strikes across the world and cautioned against any "compromise" with such f...
By PTI |
LONDON: Describing "organisers" of Mumbai and Kabul embassy attacks as "clients and creations" of Pakistan's ISI, India has said those behind the carnages are known to prepare for strikes across the world and cautioned against any "compromise" with such forces.
India also indicated its opposition to the sale of arms to Pakistan by the US and others in the name of fight against terrorism and extremism, saying such supplies were "totally unrelated" to objective meant for and rather act as "whisky to an alcoholic, a drug reinforcing an addiction".
Addressing an international conference in Paris on Wednesday, foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon said "we, in India, are next to the epicentre of international terrorism in Pakistan."
India has "directly suffered the consequences of linkages and relationships among terrorist organisations, their support structures, official sponsors and funding mechanisms, which transcend national borders but operate within them," he said in a clear reference to Pakistan.
"Any compromise with such forces, howsoever, pragmatic or opportune it might appear momentarily, only encourages them," Menon said at the Institute Francais des Relations Internationales (IFRI).
Referring to the Mumbai terror strikes and the Kabul embassy attack last July, Menon said "in each case, the perpetrators planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organisers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI."
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The foreign secretary said two months after the Mumbai attacks and one month after India presented a "dossier of evidence" linking the attacks to elements in Pakistan, "we still await a response from the Pakistani authorities, and prevarication continues". Describing the "polity beside us" as "fragile and unfinished", Menon said "there is much that the international community can do to help.
"For instance, arms sales to Pakistan totally unrelated to the fight against terrorism or extremism are like whisky to an alcoholic, a drug reinforcing an addiction, skewing the internal political balance and making the consolidation of democracy more difficult."
This was apparently a message to the US and some other western countries which are selling arms to Pakistan in the name of fight against terrorism.
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Underlining that India was seeking a peaceful periphery in "our own interest", he said New Delhi will work with all those in Pakistan and the international community who further that goal. Download
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