Pakistan offers to help India
2008-12-02 14:04
Islamabad - Pakistan offered on Tuesday to
help India investigate the militant assault on Mumbai and said
it would "frame a response" to an Indian demand that it hand
over 20 of India's most wanted men.
India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for
last week's attacks in India's financial capital that killed
183 people.
Pakistan has condemned the assault, denied any involvement
by state agencies and vowed to work with India in its
investigation. On Monday, it rejected what it called
unsubstantiated allegations of complicity.
Tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the
attacks has led to fears of renewed confrontation after
Pakistan's civilian government had been trying to push forward
a tentative peace process.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, speaking in a
televised address, repeated a Pakistani offer of co-operation,
saying it was not the time for a "blame game, taunts (and)
finger-pointing".
"The government of Pakistan has offered a joint
investigating mechanism and a joint commission to India. We are
ready to jointly go into the depth of this issue and we are
ready to compose a team that could help you," Qureshi said.
"Pakistan wants good relations with India," he said.
India not considering military action
Earlier, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told
reporters India was demanding the handover of about 20
fugitives it believes are in Pakistan.
The demand was contained in a protest note handed to
Pakistan's ambassador in New Delhi on Monday, he said.
Mukherjee also told reporters India was not considering
military action in response to the Mumbai attacks.
Qureshi did not refer to the Indian list of fugitives but
Information Minister Sherry Rehman told reporters in Islamabad
the government would respond.
"We have to look at it formally once we get it and we will
frame a response," Rehman said.
Indian media reported the men on the list included Dawood
Ibrahim, a Mumbai underworld don, and Maulana Masood Azhar, a
Pakistani Muslim cleric freed from jail in India in exchange
for passengers on a hijacked plane.
The demand for the handover of about 20 fugitives was
originally made in the wake of a December 2001 attack on
India's Parliament that India blamed on Pakistan-based
militants.
Evidence
Pakistan said at the time it wanted to see evidence.
Then Pakistani president and army chief Pervez Musharraf
said he would never extradite Pakistani citizens to India but
he did not rule out sending back Indian nationals.
The 2001 attack on India's Parliament nearly set off the
fourth war between the two countries since Pakistan was carved
from India in 1947 at the time of independence from Britain.
Pakistan has warned that if tension with India escalates,
it would have to move troops from its Afghan border - where it
is battling al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters responsible for
violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan - to the Indian border.
That would be a serious blow to US-led efforts to
stabilise Afghanistan and defeat al-Qaeda.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will visit
India on Wednesday, has played down the threat of conflict.
Pakistan's the News newspaper said Rice was also due to
visit Pakistan after India. A US embassy spokesperson said he
was not aware of any plan by Rice to come to Pakistan.