By IANS,
New Delhi : India Thursday asserted that it will never allow Pakistan to “wish away” its deeply felt national sentiment that the perpetrators of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks should be brought to book.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said during a briefing that during talks India had repeatedly been assured by Pakistan that the Indian dossiers on 26/11 contained all that Islamabad wanted.
To a question on the counsel of seven suspects being tried in Pakistan over their involvement in the Mumbai terror attack describing the dossiers provided by India as a “sham”, the spokesperson said he did not deem it necessary to react to what “some nondescript individual” had said.
However, he emphasized: “Would India just allow somebody to wish away what is a deeply, deeply felt national sentiment, that the perpetrators of 26/11 should be brought to book. We will never allow that wish list to ever happen, not now, not later, not ever.”
On the “quality of evidence”, the spokesperson said that during discussions with Pakistani counterparts, including during the recent visit of Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani prime minster’s advisor on foreign affairs, “we were assured repeatedly that all that they wanted was provided to them”.
He also said that “99 percent” of the evidence of the 26/11 attack was available in Pakistan.
In the Nov 26, 2008 terror attack, 10 Pakistani gunmen had attacked key institutions in Mumbai, killing 166 people and injuring over 300.
The spokesperson said that right from the conspiracy behind the attack to those involved, and the training and financing — all was done in Pakistan.
“Therefore, it devolves on the government of Pakistan to ensure that evidence is provided from what is available with them — given the expanse of the evidence and the entire range of activities that were undertaken prior to the attack,” he said.