By Xinhua,
Islamabad : Pakistan Sunday reiterated that it would not handover the suspects of the Mumbai terror attacks in the country.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made the remarks while talking to reporters in eastern Multan City.
Earlier on Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had urged Pakistan to handover the suspects to India.
“We do not have an extradition treaty with India nor with the US,” Qureshi told a press conference.
However, “please do not compare; every situation is not identical,” Qureshi said when a journalist asked him about the handover of Pakistanis to the US.
The foreign minister admitted that the Mumbai attacks, which killed at least 173 people, were a setback in the relations between Pakistan and India.
“There is a pause in the composite dialogue, but we will endeavour to end this pause and move towards normal relations. We must emerge from the stress that has developed in our relations,” he said.
Qureshi said tension with India had reduced but not yet got fully over.
“Friends and important nations in the region and beyond played positive roles to defuse the tension,” he said, adding that good relations with India would remain Pakistan’s priority.
“The Mumbai incident was a serious matter. There were great losses. We have to reach to the bottom of the matter that such incidents do not repeat in future. There should be a regional approach for solution. It is in our own interest,” he said.
The Indian prime minister Saturday asked Pakistan to hand over the “criminals responsible for Mumbai attacks so that they face trial in India”.