India expects action from Pakistan, says war no solution (Roundup)

Dec 11, 2008, 13:00 GMT

New Delhi - While India expects Pakistan to take serious follow-up action against elements it believes were behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks, it does not believe that war is a solution, India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in parliament Thursday.

Making the first official statement after the Pakistani prime minister said two men named by India were detained and being questioned, Mukherjee said: 'Please follow it up seriously. Exactly the same scene was played after the attack on Parliament in 2001.'

Pakistani authorities arrested militant organization Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and some others and froze Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) bank accounts after that incident.

But the arrested men were soon operating freely again and the LET, according to Indian intelligence, started operating under different names, including the charitable front the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, which the United Nations Security Council added to its sanctions list Wednesday.

Mukherjee said India expected Pakistan to follow its latest actions to its logical conclusion: 'Complete dismantling of the infrastructural facilities available from that side to facilitate the terrorist infiltration and terrorist attacks to India.'

India had given Pakistan a list of 40 suspects against whom it expected action, Mukherjee added.

He said 'controllers' in Pakistan were guiding the terrorists when operations were going on in Mumbai and Islamabad could not avoid responsibility by describing these elements as non-state actors.

'Are the non-state actors coming from heaven? Or they are coming from a different planet? Non-state actors are operating from a particular country. What we are most respectfully suggesting to the government of Pakistan - please act,' he said.

Earlier, India's federal Home Minister P Chidambaram said evidence gathered by Indian security agencies established conclusively that militants based in Pakistan were involved in the Mumbai terrorist attack and hard decisions would be taken to protect the country and its people.

'The finger of suspicion unmistakably points to the territory of our neighbour, Pakistan,' Chidambaram said while making the opening statement on the November 26 terrorist attack that killed 179 people including 26 foreigners.

The home minister said the interrogation of a captured terrorist had yielded valuable material evidence while the origins of the 10 terrorists who entered India had been established conclusively. He said details of investigations could not be given at this time.

'We will strain every nerve to defend our borders ... Given the nature of the threats, we cannot go back to business as usual. Hard decisions will be taken to protect the country and its people,' Chidambaram said.

Mukherjee said people were deeply angered and outraged and expected the government to take 'resolute action' to convey the message that India's territorial sovereignty could not be played with. 'Nobody should dare to attack us,' he said.

Asked by a lawmaker why India did not attack Pakistan given the evidence, Mukherjee said: 'I am making it clear that is not the solution.'

He also said attempts were being made to provoke India through a series of terrorist attacks. 'We are not provoked. We have no intention of being provoked,' he said.

India had conveyed to the international community that the Mumbai attacks were about global terrorism and not about India and Pakistan, nor related to Kashmir, Mukherjee said.

The international community had to help Pakistan, he added.

Earlier, Chidambaram gave details of how the Mumbai attack took place and said that there had been lapses in intelligence and security and steps taken to rectify the situation.

He announced several measures to strengthen security including setting up of 20 counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism schools for training commandos from police forces, setting up of a national investigative agency and beefing up of coastal security.

He urged lawmakers to pass bills strengthening anti-terror laws in the current session of parliament. This includes an amendment to a law on money laundering.

'South Asia is the eye of the storm of terrorism,' Chidambaram said, while leader of the opposition LK Advani said Pakistan was the epicentre of that storm.

His Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition alliance would support the government in its 'hard decisions,' Advani said.

Describing the Mumbai attacks as a 'terror war,' Advani said India should not be fooled by the cosmetic steps Pakistan seemed to be taking against terrorist elements based in that country.

All the leaders stressed that all Indian political parties and people, irrespective of their religion or regional affiliations, needed to present an united front in the battle against terrorism.