In an uncharacteristically blunt message to Pakistan,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked it to take much more effective action to curb activities of the jihadi groups targeting India and made it clear that terror as an instrument of state policy is simply not acceptable. Addressing media on board Air Indias special aircraft on his return from Dar-es-Salaam after a six-day tour of Africa,Singh said,As Pakistans neighbour,we have great worries about the terror machine that is still intact in Pakistan. We will use every possible opportunity to talk to Pakistan and convince it that terror as an instrument of state policy is not acceptable to people in the civilised world,as a whole, Singh said. His comments come in the backdrop of the ongoing testimony of David Headley in a Chicago court in which he confessed that Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence masterminded the Mumbai terror attack and one Major Iqbal was in constant touch with him. The Prime Ministers Office and National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon,accompanying Singh in this trip,were closely monitoring Headleys revelations during his trial over the past week. According to Singh,the trial had not brought out anything new that New Delhi did not already know. The trial is on. We will study it when the trial is completed, he said. With Indias strategic establishment worrying that Pakistan is losing its internal coherencethe Karachi terror attack being the latest incidentthe Prime Minister said whatever happens in the neighbourhood matters a great deal for India. I hope that Pakistan will recognise that this monster of terrorism which they unleashed at one time,is hurting them as much as it can hurt our country, he said,adding that a strong,stable and peaceful Pakistan is in Indias interest. Indias Pakistan strategy works on two fronts,the Prime Minister explained: One,at the bilateral level which is an ongoing process and two,in mobilising global opinion to act against terror emanating from Pakistan. We must convince Pakistan that it is in their own interest that they must help us in tackling the problem of terror in our region. That those jihadi groups that target India,as a destination for their terror,they must be effectively curbed and dealt with. Simultaneously,India must make every effort to mobilise world opinion to ensure that the terror machinery in Pakistan is brought under effective control. The world has seen,as never before,that the epicentre of terror is in our neighbourhood. They appreciate Indias point, Prime Minister Singh said. When asked if there were any plans to visit Pakistan,Singh said he had not made up his mind on that. But I always believe that good relations between India and all its neighbours are very desirable and indeed essential for us in South Asia to realise our development ambitions. The more I see of what is happening in Pakistan the more I am convinced that Pakistans leadership must now wake up,and must recognise that the terror machine they have or at least some elements in the country patronise,is working not to anybodys advantage, he said.
