NEW DELHI, Jul 1: India today strongly rejected Pakistan’s contention that it was shying away from talks, pointing out that all the recent initiative of India to resume talks with Islamabad came a cropper with the Pathankot terror attack.
Pakistan had not denied its involvement in the attack, but any concrete action from its side was still awaited, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said here replying to a question at a media briefing.
”India has never shied away from engagement with Pakistan and is prepared to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan bilaterally in an atmosphere free from terror and violence. In fact, it is India, which has repeatedly taken initiatives to engage Pakistan,” Mr Swarup said.
His response came on a question in regard to the statement of Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in which he blamed India for scuttling the peace process, saying India did not want to discuss the Kashmir issue, so it was shying away from talks.
The spokesperson said it was Mr Modi who first invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his oath taking ceremony on May 26, 2014 and after which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who travelled to Pakistan in December, 2015 and held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference which led to the decision to start a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue.
He said it was again Prime Minister Modi who took the decision to travel to Lahore at a very short notice on December 25, 2015, following which Foreign Secretary was quite prepared to go to Pakistan in the first half of January this year to hold initial discussions on the modalities of the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue, but in the meanwhile the Pathankot terrorist incident happened. He pointed out Ms Swaraj’s statement at a recent press conference that after an incident like Pathankot it was a natural and legitimate expectation of the Government and the country that there should be concrete action from the Pakistani side which has not denied involvement of its nationals in the Pathankot attack.
”Therefore, as EAM said we are awaiting concrete investigation to take place at the Pakistani end,” he added.
On Pakistan Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Rafiq Zakaria’s statement that their Foreign Secretary had written to his Indian counterpart asking for more evidence on Mumbai terror attack, Mr Swarup said India was fully committed to providing full cooperation to Pakistan to bring perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice, but no fresh communication had been received from their side.
The Pakistan Foreign Secretary had sent a letter in September 2015 to which the Foreign Secretary had replied, he said.
Mr Swarup said it was only through media that one kept hearing about a so called list of 24 witnesses, but India had not received any details from Pakistan regarding these witnesses. ”Because of our commitment, to cooperate with Pakistan to bring the case to a speedy conclusion, you may expect some more conversations and communications between the two sides in the near future,” he added. (UNI)
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