E-Paper
Blame Pak, not just terrorists: Menon
India has also categorically told Pakistan to stop saying that the Mumbai attacks were the handiwork of non-state actors.
New Delhi on Monday not only handed over to Islamabad the evidence of Pakistani links to the Mumbai attacks, but also launched a major diplomatic initiative to inform the international community that the conspiracy was hatched, executed and directly monitored from Pakistan.
India has also categorically told Pakistan to stop saying that the Mumbai attacks were the handiwork of non-state actors.
“We don’t think there is any such thing as non-state actors,” said Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
“It is hard to believe that something of this scale that took so long in preparation and of this nature that amounts to a commando attack could occur without anybody, anywhere in the establishment (Pakistan) knowing this was happening,” he said.
“We have briefed countries that lost their nationals in the attack,” Menon said. These countries include the US, UK and Israel.
Visiting Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei was also briefed. “He briefed us about his discussions in Pakistan and we too briefed him on the material with us,” Menon said.
Menon said the international community had extended an unprecedented support to India following 26/11 by declaring Jamaat-ud-Dawa a terrorist organisation. “It (international support) has been very heartening,” he said.
India also demanded that extradite Pakistan perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks so that they could be brought to justice in India.
On Monday morning, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, too, said something similar. “We are briefing all our friendly countries. I have written to my counterparts around the world, giving them details of the events in Mumbai and describing in some detail the progress that we have made in our investigations and the evidence that we have collected,” he said.
“The ministry will also be briefing all resident Heads of Missions here in the next 24 hours. Our Ambassadors will be doing the same in their respective countries of accreditation,” he said.
Another briefing of “friendly countries” is slated for Tuesday.
