By IANS,
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said the recent disclosure by Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the role of Pakistan’s ISI in exporting terror to Afghanistan was “nothing new” for India and stressed that it vindicated what New Delhi has been saying all along.
“There is now a growing awareness of the groups who indulge in these nefarious activities and we have to take notice of that,” Manmohan Singh told journalists aboard his special aircraft when asked about Mullen’s remarks about the ISI’s links with the Haqqani network in Afghanistan.
“What Mullen has said with regard to the role of certain forces in Pakistan is also nothing new to us. In fact, we were the earliest one to flag these issues but the world didn’t believe us,” he said.
“I’m glad that the world now recognizes the truth of what the government and the people of India have been saying about the activities of the ISI for many many years,” Manmohan Singh said.
In an unparalleled public condemnation of Pakistan, Mullen said last week that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was actively supporting Haqqani network extremists who, he stressed, have targeted US forces in Afghanistan.
“In choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy, the government of Pakistan, and most especially the Pakistani Army and ISI, jeopardize not only the prospect of our strategic partnership, but also Pakistan’s opportunity to be a respected nation with a legitimate regional influence,” Mullen told US senators.