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”.

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