Pak asks India not to ''promote terror in its territory"

Islamabad, Oct 16: Pakistan today asked India to demonstrate ''sincerity'' under the anti-terrorism institutional mechanism and ''refrain from supporting rebels inside its territory.'' ''It [anti-terror mechanism] is not a one-way traffic that Pakistan has to prove something. India also has to prove sincerity and resolve not to support terrorism inside Pakistan,'' Foreign ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told a press conference in Islamabad.

She was commenting on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that New Delhi would test Islamabad's sincerity on anti-terror cooperation vis-À-vis Mumbai blasts.

During their meeting in Havana on September 16, Dr Singh and President Pervez Musharraf had decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.

Ms Aslam said Islamabad had so far not received any evidence of ''alleged Pakistani involvement or support'' in the Mumbai blasts from New Delhi.

Asked if relations between the two countries were improving, the spokesperson said both the countries had ''come a long way'' from the situation when they had come close to a full- scale war.

''There was a time when India deployed one million soldiers (on its border with Pakistan) and the international community also feared a full-scale war,'' she said, adding ''we came a long way from that situation and put in place confidence building measures (CBMs); we are talking about disputes; we are trying to resolve disputes, trying to resolve differences.'' She said the two neighbours were now talking about building on convergence and narrowing down their differences on ''disputes like Kashmir''. She said the interaction between the two leadership and talks at various level were '' a sign of improved relations.'' Asked about the dates for the Foreign Secretary level talks between Pakistan and India, the spokesperson said these will be held in November, but the dates were yet to be finalised.

UNI