New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao says the terror links of the Pakistani state and military have to be broken, even as she felt Islamabad’s attitude towards the issue had ‘altered’.
In an interview with CNN-IBN’s Karan Thapar, Rao said that India did raise the issue of ‘linkages’ between the Pakistani spy agency and terror groups, which were revealed in a Chicago trial by Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley.
‘I did raise that and I said we need to get satisfactory answers on these linkages,’ she said.
Rao, whose two-year term ends this month, asserted that it was necessary to break the links between Pakistani state and terror.
‘Let me tell you, the aim here, and it is not just the aim of India, I think it applies to the whole global community, the strategic link between the Pakistani state and militancy and terror needs to be broken,’ she said,
Rao also defended at the resumption of talks with Pakistan, despite the slow progress in the trial of mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
‘From one angle certainly it has not moved an inch. I am not denying that. There has been a very glacial pace to this whole process as far as the 26/11 trials are concerned. But let me tell you what kind of feedback we got from the Pakistanis at this round. And they spoke of the need to discuss all the serious and substantive issues between the two countries and that terrorism was at the forefront of this,’ she said.
Rao had met her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Islamabad June 23-24, following the end of the first round of resumed dialogue, which had been stalled following the 26/11 attack.
The foreign secretary also fended off criticism over the inclusion of Kashmir in the talks.
‘Somehow the impression is being created that we have given away the store by discussing Kashmir. I completely refute that allegation,’ she said.
The foreign ministers of the two South Asian neighbours are scheduled to meet in New Delhi this month.
