Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that India has not responded to Pakistan’s request for intelligence-sharing on New Delhi’s concerns about terrorist attacks being planned from Pakistani soil.
The Foreign Office made the request following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks at a conference in New Delhi on Monday that his government has “credible information” of Pakistan-based terror groups planning to carry out fresh attacks in India, Mr. Qureshi told a group of senior editors and journalists on Thursday.
“Instead of being dismissive and simply rejecting these allegations, we decided to engage India and requested them to share that intelligence,” Mr. Qureshi said.
Since the two countries have an intelligence-sharing mechanism, he wanted the Indian leadership to “stop playing to the gallery” and share information instead of making announcements through the media.
The Indian leadership should talk to Pakistan through “proper channels” and Islamabad will take action “if credible information is shared with us”, he said.
Mr. Qureshi also said dialogue with the Pakistani Taliban is possible only if they lay down their weapons and accept the writ of the state. The government is democratically elected and “will never shut the door on dialogue”, he added.
Asked about the election in Afghanistan, Mr. Qureshi said the Pakistan government wants the strengthening of the democratic process in the neighbouring country.
Pakistan will work with whoever has the mandate of the people of Afghanistan, he said.
The Pakistan government has no favourites in the Afghan presidential polls and it is looking forward to working with the new Afghan leadership, Mr. Qureshi said.
