By IANS,
New Delhi: Underlining Pakistan’s “denials and evasions” in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, India Monday said Islamabad’s lack of sufficient action against perpetrators of the 26/11 created doubt about its seriousness on seeking a meaningful dialogue with India.
Without naming Pakistan, India also warned against using terrorism as an instrument of state policy, saying those “elements that profess an ideology of hatred, intolerance and terror often bite the hand that feeds them”.
“Besides, an increase in ceasefire violations, continued infiltration across the LOC and the attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008 and October 2009 have also placed immense strain on India-Pakistan relations in general and on the dialogue process in particular,” Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said.
He was delivering a lecture titled “India’s Vision of Peace, Security and Development in South Asia” in the memory of the late Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
“Pakistan’s evasive responses and denials in response to our requests for cooperation in exposing the conspiracy behind the Mumbai terror attack and bringing all its perpetrators to justice have not helped our bilateral relations,” Tharoor said while explaining the pause in the composite dialogue process after the Mumbai mayhem.
Alluding to repeated exhortations by Pakistani leaders for resumption of the composite dialogue, Tharoor said this can be only possible if Islamabad “fulfilled their commitment, in letter and spirit, not to allow their territory to be used in any manner for terrorist activities against India”.
“The inability or unwillingness of the Pakistani government to prevent its soil from being used to mount attacks on another state is a sad commentary that raises questions about whether it is at all serious about seeking a dialogue in order to improve relations with India,” Tharoor said.
Warning Pakistan against the temptation to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy or to selectively target only those terrorist entities that are at present perceived to be a threat to them, Tharoor said it was “a self-destructive strategy”.
“The famous fable of Dr Frankenstein offers a salutary and timeless reminder that those who create monsters must not assume they will always remain under their creator’s control,” he said.