Elements in Pakistani state back terror: India

NEW DELHI - Ahead of bilateral talks in Thimphu, India Thursday asked Pakistan to tackle the ‘Frankenstein monster’ of terror it has created and said “some elements” in the Pakistani state were backing terrorists.

India also pointed out that it had beefed up security around its assets in Afghanistan and demanded that safe havens for terrorists in areas bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan should be destroyed.

“Pakistan has created the Frankenstein. They will have to deal with it,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told a group of Afghan journalists here.

“Frankenstein (in the novel) creates an artificial human being. But the creature turns out to be dangerous,” Rao said, referring to the spate of terror attacks in Pakistan.

“The sickness is there. They have to cure it. They have to root out this evil.”

In a veiled reference to the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)agency in Pakistan, Rao said the people there generally wanted to live a life free from terror but some groups and “elements in the state of Pakistan” were prone to violence.

“I am sure people of Pakistan want peace. But there are some groups and people who think violence is the way. There are elements in the state of Pakistan who have not done anything (to tackle terror). In fact they have allowed it to grow,” she said.

Rao said the Pakistan government was aware of it. In the same breath, she added that India was not blaming Pakistan for the terror just for the sake of it.

“People shouldn’t think that we are attacking Pakistan. The Mumbai attack is an evidence. The terrorists who attacked Mumbai (in 2008) were from Pakistan. The lone surviving gunman (of the 10 Pakistani terrorists of the 26/11 strike) Kasab is a Pakistani,” she said.

Rao’s comments came ahead of meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Thimphu on the sidelines of the Standing Committee meeting of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The talks could set the stage for a meeting between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi and a subsequent visit by Qureshi to New Delhi.

A group of 30 Afghan journalists, including 14 women, were in New Delhi to pursue a 15-day media course at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) during which they interacted with officials and journalists to get an insight on how the Indian media functions.

The foreign secretary, at their valedictory function organized in the external affairs ministry’s office, said the epicentre of terror “definitely” lies in Pakistan.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna gave away certificates to the Afghans at the felicitation ceremony and stressed that India would keep assisting Afghanistan in capacity building measures.

Rao told the journalists that India had strengthened the security around its missions and project sites but the threat of terror attacks was not over.

“There is a constant threat. It is not over. We have taken measures to strengthen security at embassy and projects. We are working with the Afghanistan government to be vigilant against the possibility of such attacks,” Rao said.

“People who are engaged (in terrorism) need to be dealt with. Safe havens in the vicinity of your country need to be tackled,” she said.