PM Asks World Community to Pressurise Pak for Action on 26/11

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned that ‘phenomenal consequences’ have to be faced if the advance of terrorists in Pakistan was not controlled, asking the world community to pressurize Islamabad to do much more to bring perpetrators of 26/11 to book.

“We don’t want Pakistan to fail and emergence of democracy in Pakistan is something we welcome,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations, a leading US think tank on Monday. “But at the same time we have to recognise that there are forces at work in Pakistan that are with terrorists.”

“At least until now they were active only in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Now I think they hold direct on grip in several parts of mainland Pakistan.

“If that process is not controlled, it has I think phenomenal consequences for the security and stability of Pakistan as well as our own security,” he added.

In response to a question if he was regretful of not taking the military option in retaliation against the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the prime minister said that he resisted enormous pressure at that time “and I think the decision that I took was balanced and right decision”.

“As regards future, I hate to speculate and sincerely hope that that sort of eventuality does not arise,” Manmohan Singh said. “And that’s why I believe world community has an obligation to impress upon Pakistan that it must use all its influence to curb the power of terrorist groups.”

Singh said that Pakistan had taken some steps to control the activities of Taliban terrorist groups in FATA, but it had not acted as it should have acted against the terrorist elements who are using their territory to target our country.

He said that Pakistan has not used all its machinery to bring to book all those murderers who planned and perpetrated the horrible crime in Mumbai, and urged the world community to mount pressure on Pakistan to bring to book all those who are responsible for it.

There was now impeccable evidence that the conspiracy was planned in Pakistan with the active connivance of people still roaming about freely in Pakistan, he said. “Therefore I respectfully respect the world community to use all its influence on powers that be in Pakistan to desist from this sort of behaviour.”