Don't provide terrorists safe havens, PM tells NAM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday made a strong pitch for dismantling terror infrastructure and asked countries not to provide safe havens for terrorists sending a strong message to Pakistan on the eve of his meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday made a strong pitch for dismantling terror infrastructure and asked countries not to provide safe havens for terrorists sending a strong message to Pakistan on the eve of his meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

"In recent years, terrorist groups have become more sophisticated, more organised and more daring. Terrorists and
those who aid and abet them must be brought to justice," he said addressing the plenary session of the two-day Summit of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Though Singh did not name Pakistan, his speech left no one in doubt as to who it was aimed at.

Singh meets Gilani tomorrow morning to get a categoric commitment that Pakistan would stop terror acts directed against India and push for expeditious trial of the accused in the Mumbai terror attacks.

"The infrastructure of terrorism must be dismantled and there should be no safe havens for terrorists because they do not represent any cause, group or religion. It is time that we agree on a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism," he said.

Speaking at the Summit, Gilani said there was recently forward movement in Pakistan's relations with India and it hopes to sustain the momentum and move towards comprehensive engagement. Islamabad has been pushing for resumption of the dialogue process stalled since the Mumbai terror strikes in November last year.

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Gilani used the occasion to rake up the Jammu and Kashmir issue. Pakistan believed that durable peace in South Asia was
achievable if it was facilitated by resolution of all outstanding issues including Kashmir, he said.