Pittsburgh, September 26
Ahead of Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers meeting in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India sought to normalise relationship with Pakistan but the latter should shed its mindset of using terror as an instrument of state policy against New Delhi and take action against those involved in the Mumbai terror attacks.
He made it clear that there was no change in India's stand on Pakistan since the Sharm-el-Sheikh talks with his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, a position he has made clear in Parliament.
“India's message is that India seeks to normalise its relationship with Pakistan. But the only obstacle is that it should shed its old attitude of using terror as a state policy,” Singh told a press conference winding up his two-day trip to Pittsburgh where he attended the G-20 Summit.
“We have supplied our material and evidence for them to carry out investigation. Although the tragedy took place in India, the conspiracy took place in Pakistan. Pakistan has admitted to this. We want them to bring to book the culprits involved in the November 26 attacks,” he said.
Singh recollected that he has already said that if Pakistan took proper action, India would move the extra mile to normalise relations.
The Prime Minister's comments come as Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan are set to meet tomorrow during which Islamabad's action against terror emanating from its soil will be discussed.
Singh said India and Pakistan were neighbours and they have an obligation to move as neighbours.
Meanwhile, on the eve of crucial talks between Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers, top diplomats of the two countries met here today to prepare ground for the parleys, where India is expected to demand speedy probe into the Mumbai attacks and decisive action against their mastermind, JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir held talks here at
the Roosvelt Hotel on the margins of the annual UN General Assembly session, the first high-level contact between the two sides since
the Prime Ministers of the two countries met at Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, in July.
— PTI
