New Delhi, May 31
The Ministry of External Affairs’ response to Pakistan’s reported deadline on the closure of terrorist training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is lukewarm.
A top-level MEA official told ‘The Tribune’ that this news appeared to have been deliberately leaked to the media at a time when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is on a three-nation tour where he is scheduled to have meetings with world leaders, including US President George Bush, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The official also linked the reports about the “deadline” with the world leaders’ upcoming summit in Evian (France) where Mr Vajpayee is also to be present and the issue of terrorism is likely to come up for discussion. He pointed out that the published reports about the “deadline” were contradictory and confusing and the ministry did not have any feedback on this from its own channels.
The Vajpayee government is of the view that any such “deadlines” will not produce the desired results on the ground unless the Pakistan Government makes a pronounced and conscious shift from its two-decade-long policy of using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
The official also said the Vajpayee government was not aware whether the said “deadline” was set by the Pakistani authorities, if at all it was indeed set, because of the threat of some penalties.
He said the international community was well within its right to pronounce penalties on the Pakistan under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373.
