By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed India’sconcern over Pakistan’s continued inaction in bringing the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to justice contrary to its assurances.
“No they haven’t done enough,” he told CNN television in an interview telecast as he landed in Washington for a four-day state visit Sunday. Manmohan Singh said when he met Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, in July this year, he (Gilani) had assured that his government would do all that’s possible to bring the perpetrators to justice. “That’s not happening.”
Almost a year after the attacks that claimed over 170 innocent lives, militants like Masood Azhar and Hafeez Saeed and other Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT)terrorists continued to move around freely in Pakistan, apparently with thebacking of the Pakistan government, he said.
Manmohan Singh said it was also not certain that Pakistan army would take on Afghan Taliban elements operating in the country.”Who am I to judge whether the Pakistan government and the Pakistan army ismoving to remove the Afghan Taliban?” Singh said even as he recalled that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had publicly said Pakistan can’t be not aware about the whereabouts of “Quetta Shura”, or the leaders of Afghan Taliban.
“That’s an indication of what’s happening in Pakistan,” he said observing that Pakistan’s objectives in Afghanistan were not necessarily those of the United States. Manmohan Singh said he also was not sure whom to deal with in Pakistan since former military President Pervez Musharraf stepped down. “We would want democracy to flourish, but army still seemed to be in control.”
When Musharraf was president, he told him that he was the army. “Now I don’t whether we have a partner. I don’t know who to deal with,” Manmohan Singh said when asked about the resumption of their stalled peace dialogue.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])