By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS,
London : India has told Britain squarely that Pakistan must take immediate steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure that continues to operate from its soil, informed sources said Saturday.
The Indian warning came at a meeting between Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his British counterpart Sir Peter Rickett in London Friday.
The meeting, part of an annual exercise that takes in the entire gamut of India-British ties, was said to have been held in “a great atmosphere”.
It came less than a month after British Foreign Minister David Miliband ruffled Indian feathers by referring to the Kashmir issue in a speech delivered in Mumbai before India declared the chapter closed.
Informed sources told IANS the British side at Friday’s meeting was told “clearly and squarely” that New Delhi wanted to see “firm action” from Pakistan – first in punishing those responsible for the November Mumbai terror attacks and second, in dismantling the terrorist infrastructure that continues to operate from Pakistani soil.
“They have to wind up the infrastructure, abetment and financing of terrorist networks in Pakistan,” the source said.
“There is very little appetite for this continued state of denial that the Pakistanis are in. They have to take firm action,” the source added.
The two officials discussed not only key bilateral issues, but also major global areas of cooperation between India and Britain, including the current economic crisis and the reform of the United Nations.