26/11 evidence credible: France

France has come out in open in support of New Delhi’s dossier on the Mumbai terror attacks and paid tribute to “a very professional job” done by Indian investigating agencies, reports Tushar Srivastava.

France will supply 300 tonnes of uranium to India for its reactors under International Energy Atomic Agency control (IAEA) as per an agreement signed between the two sides.

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Jean-David Levitte, diplomatic adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the supply will start in the next few months.

“The much-needed fuel will supplement the shortages in domestic reserves for use in India’s nuclear plant fleet, currently operating at under full capacity,” Areva said in a statement on it website.

Meanwhile, France has come out in open in support of New Delhi’s dossier on the Mumbai terror attacks and paid tribute to “a very professional job” done by Indian investigating agencies.

In a clear rebuttal to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s statement that the dossier was nothing but mere ‘information’, Levitte said on Saturday that the Indian evidence was “totally credible”.

Levitte, who earlier in the day met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and NSA M.K. Narayanan said, “What we want from Pakistan is total cooperation. I think this is the least we, as a friend of India, should ask. It is in the interest of Pakistan to demonstrate full cooperation.”

“We have received all the evidence (of the Mumbai attacks) and nobody has criticised this evidence. We showed (the evidence) to our agencies and pay tribute to a very professional job (done by Indian investigators). We consider what has been given to us as totally credible,” he said in an obvious reference to Pakistan PM’s recent statement.

Levitte, however, skirted the issue whether France supported extradition of the accused to India saying, “justice must be delivered”. He refused to comment on whether official agencies in Pakistan were involved in the attack saying that the “dossier doesn’t say that”.