LAHORE: While Pakistan government has castigated Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s statement that “possible terrorist attacks in India
were being planned on the Pakistani soil”, most analysts believe that
the Indian premier is actually playing to the gallery to appease the
Indian audience under domestic pressure.
According to Abdul Basit, the Pakistani foreign office spokesman in
Islamabad, while taking a serious notice of the Indian Prime
Minister’s accusations, Deputy High Commissioner of India was called
to the Foreign Office by Director General (South Asia) and conveyed
that these remarks warranted serious and prompt attention of the
Indian authorities as these could simmer fresh tensions between India
and Pakistan. Basit said that Islamabad has once again called on New
Delhi to share information on terrorism following Manmohan’s remarks
that credible information existed about Pakistan-based terrorist
groups planning new attacks in his country. He said the Pakistan would
like to extend its fullest cooperation to pre-empt any act of terror
because terrorism is a common enemy and Pakistan has itself been a
victim of terrorism.
However, independent analysts here believe that such wild accusations
by the Indian Prime minister were actually coming under mounting
pressure of the BJP-led opposition in the parliament and that too at a
critical juncture which can damage the efforts for normalisation of
relations between the two nuclear armed neighbours. According to a
senior Pakistani journalist and the host of a political talk show,
Syed Talat Hussain, the statement by Singh is indirect declaration of
war. Elaborating his point, he said that the prime minister has
accused Pakistan of the Mumbai terrorist attacks meaning now India can
retaliate to this. He termed the statement as ill-timed and a step in
the wrong direction, adding that India should have waited for
Islamabad’s response after providing evidence on the Mumbai attacks.
Giving his reaction, the Pakistani information minister Qamar Zaman
Kaira said Pakistan that Dr Manmohan’s remarks were a serious blow to
Pakistan’s efforts for helping India in the ongoing investigation of
the Mumbai terror attacks and cooperation on other issues. “The timing
of the statement suggests that it was an election ploy by the Congress
through which they can gain sympathy votes. The Indian attitude is
highly regrettable and instead of resolving the problem, India was
appreciating those forces which have destabilised the peace process
between the two countries. He reminded that at Sharm El Sheikh,
Manmohan and Gilani had agreed that the two countries would share real
time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist
threats.
Giving his reaction, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi
said: “I would like to request the Indian government with due respect
to share all available intelligence information that they have
regarding the activities of the Pakistan-based jehadi groups and for
our part we stand ready to cooperate fully in pre-empting any act of
terror”. He was of the view that terrorism could only be combated by
serious, constant and realistic cooperation. Meanwhile, a leading
Pakistani English daily The News carried Dr Manmohan Singh’s statement
and Pakistan’s reaction under headline “Singh is King of accusations”,
in an obvious reference to Indian movie “Singh is King” that is being
shown in 16 cinema halls of Pakistan.
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