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Tuesday, Jan 06, 2009
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Join hands to get at perpetrators: U.S.

Nirupama Subramanian

— Photo: AP

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad on Monday.

ISLAMABAD: The United States has described India sharing information on the Mumbai attacks with Pakistan as a “positive” development and urged the two sides to cooperate in order to get to the perpetrators.

“The two sides need to exchange information. People have to work with each other,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who met the Pakistani leadership on Monday, said at a press conference here.

“Each side,” Mr. Boucher said, “has pieces of the puzzle and they need to be known to each other.”

Ever since India pointed at “elements” across the border, New Delhi’s seeming reluctance to share information with Islamabad had formed the basis of Pakistan’s diplomacy to manage the international pressure on it to act against the perpetrators of the attacks.

Pressed by the international community, the government’s response was that it could take no action unless it was given evidence by India.

Pakistan now has the “dossier,” and Mr. Boucher said India’s decision to hand it over was a “positive” step.

The U.S. official, who met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said it was “clear” that the Mumbai attackers had links in Pakistan.

He also praised the action taken by Pakistan against Jamat-ud-dawah — dismissed by Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon as not effective — and said it showed the government’s commitment to eliminate the sources of terrorism.

“There is determination here to follow up and find the groups that are responsible so they never do it again,” said Mr. Boucher, who was decorated by President Zardari with the Hila-e-Quaid-e-Azam, a civilian honour, for his services to strengthen Pakistan-U.S. ties.

“Root causes”

Mr. Gilani told journalists that he had conveyed to the U.S. official that while Pakistan was clear it would not allow its soil to be used for terrorism, the “root causes” such as Kashmir had to be addressed.

“With regard to the Mumbai incidents, within India also there are a lot of uprisings, so in order to improve the situation, it is best that Pakistan and India should resolve their tensions by solving our core issues, including the Kashmir issue,” he told journalists.

Pakistan, which said it was examining the information provided by India on Monday, is still emphatic about the need for a joint investigation.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, who was given a copy of the dossier in Islamabad by Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal, “underscored” the need for the two countries to cooperate in the investigations “with a view to gathering evidence that was legally scrutable,” according to the Foreign Ministry.

Mr. Bashir reiterated to the Indian envoy what a Foreign Ministry statement described as “constructive” proposals for joint investigations and Pakistan’s readiness to send a high-level delegation.

The statement also made a mention of Pakistan’s willingness to constitute a “Joint Commission” headed by the National Security Advisers of both countries.

Indian officials here said given the past pattern of sharing information with Pakistan on terrorist incidents only to see it dismissed, the present exercise was a “leap of faith” on the part of New Delhi, and a “triumph of hope over experience.”

“We have to take Pakistan at its word and hope that it will deliver,” said a senior Indian diplomat.

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