Washington, March 16
Voicing concern over Pakistan’s inaction against perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, including Hafiz Saeed, India today warned that its restraint should not be confused with weakness and said it is “very, very difficult” to resume composite dialogue at present.

“... please realise that there are groups in Pakistan that continue to follow an agenda of violence, of hatred,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in response to a question from a Lahore-based Pakistani national who asked why India was refusing to restart the composite dialogue with Pakistan which itself was a victim of terrorism.

“I did not want to bring the name of Hafiz Saeed and Jamaat-ud-Dawah and the LeT ... we feel (they) continue to roam, to speak, to be allowed unhindered access to media, to channels to communicate that agenda (of violence).. that effects us, our people are concerned about it,” Rao said.

The general feeling in India right now is: “We have suffered too much for too long,” she said. “It is very, very difficult to be convinced in such a situation that we should set aside these concerns and just move on. And that is why,

I said when you talk of resuming composite dialogue (it) becomes very, very difficult to do that in the current situation,” Rao said.

India has always condemned terrorist att ack inside Pakistan,” Rao, who is in the US on a six-day visit, said. “We have never in any way condoned that. We condemn it whole heartedly.” Earlier in her address also, she ruled out resumption of composite dialogue with Pakistan till Islamabad guarante es that terrorism can be controlled by its authorities. “Today, Pakistan claims that it is in no position to give us such a guarantee that terrorism can be controlled by its authorities. In such a situation, the people of India who are already bitterly aff ected by the series of terrorist attacks directed against them, can hardly be expected to support the resumption of a full-blown Composite Dialogue with Pakistan,” Rao said. — PTI