Offering to assist probe into the Mumbai blasts after needle of suspicion pointed to Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf has said political compulsions and extremist forces in the two countries "hindered" progress of peace process but noted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had the "desire" to end "disputes".
Touching upon the subject of the Tuesday Mumbai blasts himself while answering a question on the Indo-Pak peace process, Musharraf told a TV channel on Thursday night that Pakistan was willing to assist with investigations being held to determine the culprits behind the terror attacks in India's financial capital that claimed over 200 lives.
"Whosoever has done this cannot be pardoned at all. So we condole with the Indian government and I assure Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Pakistan government and I myself are with him in any investigation that he wants to carry out," he said in an interview to Pakistan's Business Plus Television.
"This is loss of precious innocent lives. We condemn it and we are with the Indian government to investigate anything," said Musharraf, who had made similar offer during the Diwali bomb attacks in New Delhi.
About the peace process, he said the two countries were progressing well on confidence building measures but had not moved much on the conflict resolution front.
{{/usCountry}}About the peace process, he said the two countries were progressing well on confidence building measures but had not moved much on the conflict resolution front.
{{/usCountry}}Musharraf said there are political compulsions on both sides that impeded progress to resolve the contentious issue.
"Both the countries have extremists. We have them (extremists) on our side too," he said adding it would be difficult to develop total consensus to resolve the issues.