New Delhi, Nov 4 (Inditop.com) Any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan was “realistically possible” only after it dismantled the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said Wednesday while refuting allegations that India was fomenting insurgency in Waziristan.
“We have conveyed many times our desire to engage in meaningful dialogue with Pakistan,” Rao said here at a seminar on South Asia organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
But a dialogue with Pakistan was “realistically possible”, she stressed, only after Pakistan dismantled the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil. Pakistan must fulfil its commitment not to allow its territory to be used for terror activities against India, she said.
“There is no factual basis to these allegations. We have always wanted good relations with Pakistan,” Rao later told reporters when asked about Pakistan’s allegation that it had enough evidence to substantiate that India was funding terror in South Waziristan.
Pakistan’s military spokesperson Athar Abbas had alleged Tuesday that Pakistani security forces had seized Indian-made arms and equipment from the Taliban bastion of South Waziristan and added that Islamabad would soon raise the issue through diplomatic channels.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Tuesday had refuted the allegations, saying Pakistan’s internal developments were of “their own making”.
Without naming Afghanistan, Rao said terrorism in Afghanistan was receiving support from “contiguous areas” and asked the international community to pressure Islamabad to control such extremist outfits.
