Press Trust of India, Wednesday February 24, 2010, Lahore
On the eve of the Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks, Pakistan on Wednesday said that India's demand for handing over of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, should not be bracketed with the parleys as it would be "counter-productive."
"In my view it is better not to view this (tomorrow's talks) from the point of success or failure. Let's wait till tomorrow. There will be more clarity on this tomorrow and we'll take it from there," Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told reporters here in reply to a question before leaving for New Delhi.
Bashir will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao, who is expected to raise the issue of terrorism during the meeting.
On India's demand for handing over of Saeed, he said Pakistan's stand was very clear "on these issues, on counter-terrorism and other problems."
"There is only one way -- the first thing is that the two sides had agreed in Sharm-el-Sheikh that terrorism is a common problem. That is, the threat of terrorism is both to India and Pakistan as it is to other countries of the world," Bashir said.
"In my view, there is great clarity that bracketing these specific issues with the talks is counter-productive."
Responding to a question on India's alleged interference in Balochistan and whether he would raise it during the meeting, Bashir said all this is part of counter-terrorism and if that issue is raised Pakistan will discuss this matter.
The Sharm-el-Sheikh joint declaration with Pakistan is coming to haunt India. There is a conspiracy by a part of the ruling UPA to sabotage the growing nationalistic view in India cutting across all party lines. The result was the joint declaration which said that terrorism is a problem that Pakistan also faces and inter-alia conceding that India had contributed to Pakistan's terrorism problem vis-a-vis India's Afghanisthan/Baluchisthan policy. This anti-national clique in the ruling UPA betrayed India's nationalistic forces and compromised our policy in Afghanisthan/Baluchisthan. So long as this clique continues to call the shots in the Government, India will tolerate Pakistan's terrorist adventures and seek to give the Pakistani government a clean chit so that America can befriend the ruling forces in Pakistan and continue with its agenda, which need not necessarily be in India's interest. This clique has to be exposed if India is to be saved.
http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/exclude_2611_mastermind_from_talks_pakistan.php
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