Headley's interrogation reveals clear links with Pak agencies: Menon

New Delhi, July 20 (ANI): National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday said that clear nexus existed between 26/11 Mumbai terror suspect David Coleman Headley and Pakistan's official and intelligence establishment.

"For us, it's been brought home most recently by what we learnt from Headley, which confirms many of the things that we knew before. And it's really the links between the official establishment and with existing intelligence agencies," said Menon.

"It's that nexus which makes it a much harder phenomenon for us to deal with. Unfortunately, what we know and what we see suggests that these links of this nexus will not be in fact be broken soon, if anything it's getting stronger," he added.

Menon further said that India is developing institutions to investigate militancy crimes and to see how this would improve the relationship between the two countries.

"What we have both been trying to do is to put in place the institutions, the policies, the practices which would help us to deal with this. In India, for instance, we have not just established the national investigation agencies to investigate terrorist crimes but also created a multi-agency center, which collates and disseminates information against any terrorism to the forces and the agencies concerned," said Menon.

"We have set up a national intelligence grid. We are also in the process of designing a national counter terrorism center, so that's something where I think both of us have evolving structures and I think it would be useful if we talk to each other about it. About how that works in both our countries," he added.

In the two-day strategic dialogue between India and United States of America in the national capital, Menon said the two countries can work towards combating militant activities and transform the relationship of India and the U. S.I think it has helped to make both of us safer. And it would be useful to hear from you where you think we should be going with this cooperation. This is something, which has been building over several years," said Menon.

"We have now reached the point where, in a sense, we have reached critical mass where we can go forward to much closer and much better work together. But counter-terrorism is no exception; in fact, it's an important part of the larger transformation of India-U.S. relationship that we have witnessed over several years," he added.

Menon also said that there is a much clearer picture today of the infrastructure of terrorism, which is not confined to South Asia but also affects the entire world. (ANI)