No talks with Pak unless cross border terrorism stops: BJP

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party today cautioned the Government that any kind of talks with Pakistan will be meaningless unless Pakistan dismantles terrorist bases on its soil.

Commenting on the Manmohan Singh Government's proposal for a Joint Mechanism on Terrorism, the BJP said that Pakistan by declaring its unwillingness to hand over Mumbai train blast suspects to India, had wiped out the essence of all the agreements between the two countries "right from Shimla to Havana in one go." Condemning Pakistan's attitude towards terrorists operating from their soil and creating havoc in India, the party said the Government should firmly tell Pakistan that there would be no talks unless it stuck to its promise that it would not allow terrorist activities from its land.

The party accused the UPA government of weakening its stand with Pakistan on the issue of terrorism and said the NDA had forced Pakistan to agree to commit itself on the cross border issue by the January 6, 2004 statement between then Prime Minister Atal Bihari VAjpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to newspersons,BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said that Dr Manmohan Singh had erred in assessing the real design and intent of Pakistan for continuation of bilateral talks. "More serious is the Pak rationale that Mumbai police were blaming ISI in order to deflect the attention from perpetrators of the terror attack in Malegaon," he said and demanded the Government clarify its position on the Pakistani remarks.

He ridiculed the Pakistani foreign office spokesperson's demand that India should provide sufficient evidence in support of Pakistani ISI involvement in abetting terrorism. He said India had provided a list of 20 wanted terrorists but Pakistan did nothing till date.

The party meanwhile also condemned the statement of J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad seeking pardon for the main accused of Parliament terrorist attack Afzal Guru, saying it showed the Congress had always been soft and sympathetic towards terrorists.

He said "the nation stands shocked that the Congress Chief Minister makes such a request for the terrorist, who was conspirator of a terror attack on Parliament...Those, who are seeking for pardon should actually apologise to the nation for insulting the brave security guards of the Parliament complex, who laid their lives fighting these terrorists." This was another ''disastrous move by UPA after the Kerala Assembly passing a unanimous resolution to release the Coimbatore bomb blasts accused Abdul Nazeer Madani." UNI KAS RP HT1945