Kasuri flays Mumbai blasts, calls for resolving issues

Washington, July 12: Condemning the serial blasts in Mumbai, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri called on India and Pakistan to expedite efforts for the resolution of the Kashmir issue which, he said, was feeding extremism.

''It is now time for India and Pakistan to move past confidence-building measures to work towards a solution to the Kashmir conflict which is feeding extremism,'' Mr Kasuri said.

Terrorist attacks affect the whole world and ''that is why we say we want to settle the Jammu and Kashmir issue''.

The Foreign Minister referred to yesterday's blasts in Mumbai, which have left more than 180 people dead and several hundreds injured, while delivering a speech at the Carnegie International Endowment for Peace in Washington D C.

''The government of Pakistan has already condemned the blasts in the strongest possible language,'' he said.

On Afghanistan, Mr Kasuri said he had very ''good meetings'' with US officials. ''The Americans know and openly talk about the nexus between the war lords, the narcotics traffic, drug money and the Taliban.'' ''What we need today is greater intelligence sharing and we should work in a trilateral way involving the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We should coordinate our efforts and deal with the insurgency in Afghanistan.''

UNI