Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday told Congress president Sonia Gandhi that countries needed to work together to eliminate militancy and extremism in all forms and manifestations. Zardari, who made a telephone call to Sonia, said the killing of innocent people was “most detestable”.

A statement issued by the presidency said Zardari “condemned the attacks in the strongest possible terms”. He said “militancy and extremism in all forms and manifestations had to be eliminated” and countries needed to cooperate with one another in this regard.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, currently on an official visit to India, said in Chandigarh that Pakistan and India needed “to be calm, composed and supportive of each other” instead of making “knee-jerk reactions”.

Without referring to the recent arrests in the Malegaon case and alleged involvement of some of the accused in February 2007 Samjhauta Express blast, Qureshi said: “In the Samjhauta incident, you had to re-assess the whole thing. You cut a sorry figure”. He said the Samjhauta incident now clearly showed that we have to be cautious in “our expressions and our insinuations” have to be measured.

Reacting to reports of terrorists infiltrating into Mumbai from Karachi in a boat, Qureshi said: “How could one travel on that boat from Karachi to Mumbai.”

Qureshi, who held talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, said he had stressed the need for greater linkages between intelligence agencies so that they could share information to prevent such incidents.

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