Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
India

India to address concerns on terrorism at foreign secretary talks

Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Aug, 2014 11:55 AM
    Ahead of the much-awaited India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad Aug 25, India Wednesday said it will address its concerns on terrorism "with all means available".
     
    External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, during a press briefing here, also hit back at Pakistani criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing Pakistan of waging a proxy war against India.
     
    He said Modi was merely articulating India's "core concerns about relations with" Pakistan over terrorism emanating from its soil.
     
    India and Pakistan Wednesday exchanged some sharp words over Prime Minister Modi's statement with the Pakistan foreign office terming Modi's statement as "most unfortunate".
     
    On the foreign secretary-level talks, the spokesperson said the two top officials are "meeting in the context of directives provided by the prime ministers to be in touch and look at the way forward in bilateral India-Pakistan relations".
     
    He said the talks stems from the initiative of Modi when he invited his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to his swearing in ceremony in Delhi in May.
     
    "India will in any case address its concerns on terrorism with all means that are available to us, our tool kit is not restricted in any manner," Akbaruddin added.
     
    On the Pakistani criticism of Modi's statement, he said: "Terrorism for us is a real and present danger. The prime minister was articulating what is for us a core concern in relations with Pakistan. Mere denials of selective approaches towards terrorism is not going to drive away our concerns."
     
    "These stem from the fact that some of the worst terrorist attacks in Indian owe their genesis to areas either in Pakistan control or in Pakistan," he said, and cited the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament by Pakistani militants and the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists attacked India's commercial capital.
     
    "The attack on our parliament, which is one of the most sacred institutions in India, and the heinous killings of Indians and 16 other nationalities in Mumbai cannot be wished away. These are matters of present and real concern to us and the prime minister was articulating our core concerns in relations with Pakistan," he said.
     
    Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said the statements by Modi emanating "at the highest political level were "most unfortunate".
     
    She said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to India in May for Modi's swearing-in was in the spirit of wanting to establish good neighbourly relations with India.
     
    The visit "generated a fresh momentum in the bilateral relationship" and "it would be in the larger interest of the regional peace that instead of engaging in a blame game, the two countries should focus on resolving all issues through dialogue and work together to promote friendly and cooperative relations".
     
    She termed Modi's statements as "repeating the baseless rhetoric against Pakistan regarding terrorism" and recalled that Pakistan has consistently condemned terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations.
     
    Modi, while addressing Indian armed forces personnel in Leh, Tuesday said Pakistan was indulging in a proxy war killing innocent people in India as it has lost the power to fight a conventional war.
     
    "The neighbouring country has lost the strength to fight a conventional war, but continues to engage in the proxy war of terrorism. Indian armed forces are suffering more casualties from terrorism than from war," Modi said.

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Girls below 18 victims in most Delhi rapes

    Girls below 18 victims in most Delhi rapes
    Girls below 18 years of age have been the victims in most of the rape cases in the national capital and the majority of such cases have happened in residences or involved friends and acquaintances, says a study by Delhi Police.

    Girls below 18 victims in most Delhi rapes

    No bed for ailing African woman at AIIMS

    No bed for ailing African woman at AIIMS
    Martha Susan Kabura (51) has come all the way from Kenya to India's premiere institute, AIIMS, hoping for a cure for her fatal ailment. But for the past week, she has been camping outside the hospital - in the sweltering

    No bed for ailing African woman at AIIMS

    Uproar in India: Baba Ramdev's aide meets Most Wanted Terrorist Hafiz Saeed

    Uproar in India: Baba Ramdev's aide meets Most Wanted Terrorist Hafiz Saeed
    Yoga guru Ramdev's close aide Ved Pratap Vaidik's meeting with 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan sparked off a major row Monday with the Congress seeking to pin down the Narendra Modi government by asking if he was sent as an emissary even as the ruling BJP distanced itself from the meeting, asserting Saeed was a "terrorist".

    Uproar in India: Baba Ramdev's aide meets Most Wanted Terrorist Hafiz Saeed

    Akali Dal leaders to meet president over Haryana SGPC

    Akali Dal leaders to meet president over Haryana SGPC
    Leaders of Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal will meet President Pranab Mukherjee soon to protest against the recent bill passed by the Haryana assembly under which a new Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) would be set up to manage gurdwaras in Haryana.

    Akali Dal leaders to meet president over Haryana SGPC

    Haryana SGPC move illegal, Congress wants to divide Sikhs: Badal

    Haryana SGPC move illegal, Congress wants to divide Sikhs: Badal
    Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Saturday termed the move of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Haryana government to set up a separate committee for managing Sikh shrines in the state "illegal and patently wrong" as well as "politically motivated".

    Haryana SGPC move illegal, Congress wants to divide Sikhs: Badal

    SGPC vs HSGPC: Is Hooda's Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee illegal

    SGPC vs HSGPC: Is Hooda's Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee illegal
    For Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the passing of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill, which paves the way for a separate body for Haryana's gurdwaras, may have been a cakewalk Friday but this has to overcome hurdles with serious legal and political implications.

    SGPC vs HSGPC: Is Hooda's Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee illegal