The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan points the finger at Pakistan

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Manmohan points the finger at Pakistan

Vinay Kumar

“It utilised terrorism as an instrument of State policy”

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday squarely blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai terror strike and pointed out that there was enough evidence to show that the attack, executed with military precision, had the support of some official agencies of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said terrorism was largely sponsored from outside the country, mainly Pakistan, which “utilised terrorism as an instrument of State policy.”

“We must convince the world community that States that use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy must be isolated and compelled to abandon such tactics. We must engage vigorously in debates to press the point that ‘soft’ support for terrorism cannot any longer be endorsed,” Dr. Singh said at a conference of Chief Ministers on internal security, the first such meet after the November 26, 2008 Mumbai carnage.

While admitting that India’s problems were compounded by the fact that “we have a highly unpredictable and uncertain security environment in our immediate neighbourhood,” he said the governments in some of our neighbouring countries “are very fragile in nature.”

He cautioned that the “more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion. Pakistan’s responses to our various demarches on terrorist attacks are an obvious example.”

The Prime Minister’s tough talk came a day after New Delhi handed over evidence to Islamabad on Pakistan’s involvement in the Mumbai attack.

Dr. Singh was categorical about Pakistan’s complicity in the attack. Pakistan was mentioned eight times in his four-page speech that also dwelt at length on the recent initiatives to combat terror, Left wing extremism and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

National consolidation

He stressed that inheritance of a great historical experience of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-caste and multi-lingual society contributed to India’s sense of nationhood. “Today, even as Pakistan engages in whipping up war hysteria, our nation remains steadfastly united and, if anything, the process of national consolidation is becoming stronger.”

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