While Manmohan Singh has not spoken for a while on Pakistan’s responsibilities and the Mumbai attacks, Pranab Mukherjee raises it at every address.
NEW DELHI: While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not spoken for a while on Pakistan’s responsibilities and the Mumbai attacks, Union Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee raises it at every address.
The government has fielded him to keep up pressure on President Asif Zardari’s government, to act against terror groups operating from Pakistan.
On Saturday, at a function to honour Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Mukherjee dubbed the Mumbai attacks as “cold and calculated murder” of innocent civilians, not something where the plot went awry, resulting in “collateral damage”. He said accounts gleaned from the interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Amir, the lone terrorist captured, gave a “chilling account of his handlers”. The minister did not elaborate, but he was obviously referring to the LeT. One name India has forwarded to Pakistan is of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who Kasab said is the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks. India wants him for questioning. In Goa, Anand Sharma, Mukherjee’s junior in the foreign ministry, emphasised that India is keeping its options open, a clear hint that unless Pakistan is sincere and shows results on the ground, chances of a precision strike on terrorist camps or even all-out war have not been ruled out.
On Friday, Mukherjee, delivering a keynote address at a Sikkim university, again spoke of Pakistan and the Mumbai terror attacks. “Terrorism remains a scourge for our region. Repeated appeals to our neighbours to ensure that they do not support terrorist activities and dismantle the infrastructure, have been ignored,” he said. He added, “It obliges us to consider options, to protect and our people from this menace.”
Indian envoys worldwide have been summoned by South Block for a meeting on Monday. They may be briefed on the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks and told to keep up pressure on their host governments to get Pakistan to act.
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