Pak says India should 'come clean' on Mumbai attacks

Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Feb 13 (PTI) Claiming that India's stand on
the Mumbai attacks is getting "mixed with compulsions of
domestic politics," Pakistan Friday asked New Delhi to "come
clean" on Indian individuals and entities responsible for
"acts of commission and omission".

Reacting to Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee's statement in Lok Sabha on Pakistan's response to
the Indian dossier, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said
his "remarks are essentially a rehash of the standard Indian
line against Pakistan".

"We have a distinct sense that the reality of the Mumbai
terrorist attacks, which were wholeheartedly condemned by the
international community and Pakistan, is getting increasingly
mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India," Basit
said in a statement.

"The government of Pakistan expects India to come clean
on the multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy and expose the
names of persons and entities in India who were also
responsible for acts of commission and omission in a
transparent manner," he said.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee had described
Pakistan's response to the dossier – which was delivered
yesterday – as a "positive development" as Pakistani
authorities had admitted that elements in this country were
involved in the Mumbai attacks.

Mukherjee also said that India wanted the perpetrators of
the attacks to be brought to justice and that terrorist
infrastructure in Pakistan be dismantled to prevent future
such attacks.

However, Pakistani TV news channels played up Mukherjee's
remark that the "overwhelming response of official Pakistan to
the Mumbai attacks was not appropriate to a terrorist attack
where innocents were massacred in cold blood".

They also harped on his comment that "prevarication,
denial, diversionary tactics and misplaced sense of victimhood
(had) characterised Pakistan's reaction".

The Foreign Office spokesman's statement, issued in the
wake of these media reports, also said Mukherjee's remarks
were "in complete variance with the imperatives of a serious
approach to uncover the full facts relating to Mumbai attacks
and bringing the perpetrators to justice".

Noting that Pakistan had "so far refrained from
commenting on Indian internal affairs", Basit said: "We have
acted with a high sense of responsibility and exercised
restraint. We have offered our hand of cooperation. We do so
in the interest of regional peace and security." PTI RHL