India's 'finger-pointing' inconsistent with pact

New Delhi, Nov 15: Pakistan today asked India to realise the ''dangerous folly'' of destabilising the dialogue process through ''finger pointing'' as New Delhi did in the case of the July 11 Mumbai blasts.

''Let me make it very clear. After the Bombay blasts there was almost immediate finger pointing'' against Islamabad and ''unfortunately, the composite dialogue was derailed,'' Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told reporters at the end of two days of talks with his Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon.

By refusing to hold the Foreign Secretaries' level talks in July, India violated the ''Delhi Declaration'' issued during Pakistan Pesident Pervez Musharraf's visit here last year in which the two countries agreed not to allow acts of terrorism affect or impede the peace process, he said.

Finger pointing and attempts to destabilise either country by the other would be a ''dangerous folly'' and it would be better this was understood well, he said.

The Pakistani official said India did not provide him at the talks any ''evidence or information'' about ISI's involvement in the Mumbai blasts.

''I was given some material'' and on a cursory look he said he did not find anything about the Mumbai blasts. The material related to some other incidents and linkages between the ''banned groups'' in the two countries. This would be examined by officials concerned in Pakistan, he said.

It was unfortunate that within 15 minutes of the Mumbai blasts, India blamed Pakistan for it. There was no such effective investigative mechanism in the region which could identify the brain behind terror attacks so instantly, he contended.

Under the joint institutional mechanism agreed today to fight terrorism, he said Pakistan would also, if necessary, provide information to India about possible involvement of India-based terror groups in the killings in his country.

UNI

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