By IANS,
London : Declaring Pakistan as the “epicentre” of world terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the world’s most powerful countries to rid both Pakistan and Afghanistan of terrorism.
“We all know the epicentre of terrorism in the world today is Pakistan. The world community has to come to grips with this harsh reality,” he said in an interview published Wednesday ahead of his meeting with US President Barack Obama in London Thursday.
“�The proof of the pudding is in the eating. That the attacks on Mumbai were planned and acted upon in Pakistani territory is now admitted by everybody, including the intelligence agencies of developed countries,” he told the Financial Times.
“That is living proof that despite many promises made by Pakistan since 2004 to my predecessor and to me that Pakistan will not be allowed to be used to undertake acts of terror against India, in practice no effective action has been taken to control terror.
“The world has a responsibility that Pakistan lives up to the promise that it will not allow its territory to be used to promote acts of terror directed against India.”
Asked about US President Obama’s regional security strategy, the Prime Minister said India wanted “both Afghanistan and Pakistan to be free of the hold of terrorist elements.”
“I have not studied the Obama plan. We are victims of terrorism and we hope that whatever the world community plans to do they will pay adequate attention that terrorism ceases to be a problem in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan.”