PM asks G-8 to put pressure on Pak to shed path of terrorism

India has asked influential countries of the G-8 and G-5 to put pressure on Pakistan to shed the path of terrorism and choose friendship with it, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh disclosed today.

India has asked influential countries of the G-8 and G-5 to put pressure on Pakistan to shed the path of terrorism and choose friendship with it, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh disclosed on Saturday.

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He also said he hoped that he would come out of his meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani next week in Egypt convinced that Pakistan will bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai "massacre" and not allow terrorism directed against India from its soil.

Speaking to reporters on the way back home from attending the summit of G-8 and G-5 countries in Italy, Singh said he had taken up the problem of terrorism directed against India from Pakistani soil during his interaction with leaders of the industrialised and emerging economies.

"Wherever I have talked to leaders in the G-8 and G-5 fora, there is appreciation that India has been a victim of terrorism for the last 25 years and there is a lot of evidence (of that emerging from Pakistan). Our appeal is to all the leaders and we have told them put pressure on Pakistan to leave the path of terrorism and take the path of friendship and go forward in the relations with India," he said.

He was replying to a question whether there has been anything "positive" done by Pakistan on India's demands after his meeting with President Asif Zardari in Yekaterinburg in Russia last month and whether India was seeking international pressure on Islamabad to check terrorism directed against it from there.