The Government today cautiously welcomed the Pakistani response to the Mumbai terror attack dossier as “a positive development” but made it clear that Islamabad will have to choose the kind of relationship it wants to have with India. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Lok Sabha that India will continue to “review” the situation, including Pakistani responses, and take steps to protect citizens. He said “with Mumbai, a threshold was crossed.”

US Ambassador David C Mulford described Pakistan’s admission that the Mumbai attacks were launched from its soil as an “important first step in the right direction” and said the US will “watch and help” to ensure that Islamabad completes the investigation and prosecution in the case.

“I think it is very upward looking, important first step in the right direction,” Mulford said on the sidelines of a function. He said Islamabad’s response to the Indian dossier was the “beginning of a process” that they “accept and are willing” to proceed on the material provided by New Delhi.

Earlier in the day, making a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha, Pranab Mukherjee said: “We are at a point in our relationship where the authorities in Pakistan itself have to choose the kind of relationship that they want with India in the future. Much depends on actions in the Mumbai case reaching their logical conclusion.”

He said “substantial gains” in the process of normalisation achieved during the last five years are at “grave risk” as the dialogue process is premised on the commitments given by Pakistan that territories under its control will not be used for terrorism against India in any manner.

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