New York, September 28
Asking President Pervez Musharraf to stick to his commitment to end cross-border terrorism, India said today that Pakistan should dismantle terror outfits on its eastern border just as it was doing on its western border with Afghanistan.

General Musharraf should stick to his own commitment that he would not allow the Pakistani territory to be used by terrorists for activity in other countries, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here yesterday.

Asked about General Musharraf’s claim that Pakistan had defeated Al-Qaida, he said he had no idea.

On the proposed joint mechanism between the two countries to fight terrorism, which envisaged cooperation between the intelligence agencies, he said modalities would be decided through negotiations but declined to give any timeframe.

Asked whether India could trust Pakistan, Mr Mukherjee said, “We cannot change our neighbours. And if you have to live together, it is better we live in peace. Trust begets trust”. India, he said, had initiated a composite dialogue with Pakistan, involving Jammu and Kashmir, to bring peace to the region. “General Musharraf talks of ‘out-of-the-box’ solution and Indian position is that it cannot allow redrawing of borders.

“But by building up cooperation between the people on two sides of the ‘Line of Control’, it can become a ‘Line of Cooperation’”, he said. Asked about the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, Mr Mukherjee said the US had to go through the legislative process.

“Unless the legislation is enacted, the administration can do little. So, it would take whatever time it requires”, he said, adding that during his talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice he had stressed that the legislation had to be within the parameters set by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Every legislature in the world has its own procedure and it cannot be imposed”, he said.

He described as “satisfactory” the ongoing Indo-American defence cooperation and expressed the hope that American companies would participate in defence production. —PTI