Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Tuesday rejected Pakistan’s request for the resumption of dialogue and said no progress can be made until Pakistan brings the alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice and dismantle ‘terror infrastructure’ on its soil.
India suspended dialogue with Pakistan after last year's Mumbai terror attacks which killed over 170 people.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told reporters today that India’s “position has been very clear and consistent. We have asked Pakistan to take two steps -- one, to bring perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice and to ensure that terror structures in Pakistan used against our country should be dismantled. But we have not seen progress in either of these two steps."
Tharoor was asked to respond to Pakistan's envoy to India Shahid Malik’s suggestion that India was reneging on commitment made in the Sharm-el Sheikh joint statement for resumption of talks between Islamabad and New Delhi.
Shahid Malik, Pakistan High Commissioner to India told CNN Sunday that the "diplomatic vacuum" does not help the cause of peace and by not talking to each other, "we are strengthening the forces which don't want the two countries to make any progress."
Referring to actions against suspects of Mumbai attacks, he said Pakistan was not slow in taking action. It was "looking for credible actionable evidence" to ensure that the case is "fool-proof," Pakistani envoy said.
Referring to the July 16 joint statement made by Prime Ministers of both countries in Sharm-el Sheikh (Egypt), Malik said it mentioned that "the efforts that we are continuing to do in the context of terrorism and the dialogue process, they have to be delinked and they are not to be bracketed".
He said he was "referring to the commitment, the agreement the two Prime Ministers made in Sharm-el-Sheikh on July 16 and if you look at the joint statement, it is very clear that dialogue is the only way forward".
Malik said Pakistan has been asking India to initiate dialogue process but "there has been no response. We were hoping and still continue to harbor hope that the two countries would get down and talk to each other and discuss all the issues."
When asked why Pakistan was not moving fast enough on investigations in the 26/11 terror attack case, Malik said, "I would not agree with that... FIR was lodged against the seven accused in February, within four months of the tragedy.
"The trial is continuing and as a matter of fact on October 10, a formal trial against the seven accused has begun," Malik said.
The Pakistani envoy said his country was looking for "credible actionable evidence against the individuals (so) that our case is fool-proof and we can argue the case and it will strengthen hands of the prosecutors."
But Tharoor said that Islamabad had to take the first step, only then New Delhi would meet it "more than the half way". He said, "so far, Pakistan has not done it. We believe there is a great deal to be done."
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