Zardari wants India to act more 'maturely'

New York, May 30: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that being the largest democracy in the world, India should behave much 'maturely' than it has done in the aftermath of the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

In an interview to Newsweek magazine, Zardari said that people like Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attack gunman, are non-state actors and that states must not let them succeed in their only motive, which is to bring countries to the brink of war.

"I'm a little disenchanted with India. I expected the largest democracy in the world to behave much more maturely. We are facing a threat on the eastern and western borders. This new-age terror has created a phenomenon where a few people can take entire states to war. The fact that these people happen to belong to Pakistan or India or Bangladesh is immaterial.

They are non-state actors, and states should behave like states," Zardari said.

Responding to a question, he ruled out any possibility of a full scare war with India, saying he is a liberal by nature and democrat by principles.

"I can never be a hawk. I'm a liberal by nature and democrat by principles. War is never an option, as far as I'm concerned," Zardari said.

Zardari also made it clear that despite immense pressure from the international community, particularly the United States, to launch a military offensive in the terror hot bed North Waziristan, where the failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad is said to have received terror training from the Taliban, the final call on whether to open any new front in the lawless tribal regions rests with Islamabad only.

"One works with one's own game plan. We are fighting to save Pakistan. So we're working on it with a map in our hand. We'd like to know who is financing the Afghan Taliban, and who's financing the Pakistani Taliban. We haven't got any closer to knowing that," he said.

ANI