Attack part of larger ‘design’, says India, Rice for tough Pak action

After her talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Rice said: “The fact is non-state actors perform from the confines of the state. There has to be direct and tough action (by Islamabad).” She made it clear that “non-state actors” were “still a matter of your (Pakistan) responsibility that somehow relates to your territory”.

During an interaction with the press, Mukherjee said India has suffered repeated terror strikes in important capitals during the year — Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi where, put together, almost 350 lives were lost and 733 persons injured in six incidents.

Earlier, Rice met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Leader of Opposition L K Advani. Both countries are involved in some hectic diplomacy after the attacks. In Washington, Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon engaged Bush administration officials, including US Under Secretary of State (Political Affairs) William Burns and senior Democrat lawmakers Christopher Dodd, Richard G Lugar, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry — most are being considered for positions in the new Barack Obama administration — over the last two days.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was in Islamabad today, will be coming to New Delhi tomorrow and meet Defence Minister A K Antony.

New Delhi has raised the temperature saying “what action will be taken will depend on what response we get from Pakistan (on the demarche)”.

“The government is determined to act decisively to protect its territorial integrity and the safety and security of our people with all means at our disposal,” Mukherjee said. “There is no doubt that terrorist acts were perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan. This assessment is widely shared by the international community.” He said India expects the international community to ensure that Pakistan arrests and brings to justice perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

Within hours of her arrival in New Delhi, Rice said, “What has to happen is there has to be a real sense of transparency, real sense of action and real sense of urgency because these are extremists who have the same intention and same goal and that is to terrorise and send message to states around the world.”

Asked what the US thought that Pakistan should do on India’s request to hand over 20 most-wanted terrorists, she said: “I would refrain from speculating on what Pakistan will do on the specific request.” She even indicated al-Qaeda’s involvement: “Whether there is direct Al Qaeda hand or not, this is a kind of terrorism the Al-Qaeda participates in”.

“This message has been conveyed and will be conveyed (to Pakistan),” she said, adding extremists have done “great damage” to Pakistan too. She said the message had been received “favourably” in Pakistan. Countries like US, Britain and India, she said, have “great interest in getting to the bottom of this and bringing people to justice and we have great interest in prevention (of terror attacks)”. She also talked about “intelligence-sharing”.

“I don’t want to go into what Pakistan may or may not do. I am going to take Pakistan’s stated commitment to get to the bottom of this and make them know that they are enemies of Pakistan as well as India,” she said.

While Rice said “you are not alone in this fight”, Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon was told in Washington that “there would be full cooperation and support at various levels, including government, from the US to India as it dealt with the consequences of the incident.”