News
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Mukherjee rules out Indo-Pak war
* External affairs minister says India awaits Pakistan’s response to demand for ‘fugitives’
* Says ‘difficult’ to carry on peace processBy Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee ruled out on Tuesday an armed conflict with Pakistan after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, stating forcefully that “nobody is talking about military action”. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of an India-Arab Co-operation Forum, Mukherjee did not comment directly on US president-elect Barack Obama’s remarks that India has a right to protect itself. “What will be done, time will show and you will come to know,” he said. ‘Fugitives’: He said India ‘will await’ Pakistan’s response to a demarche protest note issued on Monday. “Now, we have in our demarche asked (for) the arrest and handover of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and who are fugitives of Indian law,” Mukherjee said. “There are lists of about 20 persons. (These) lists are sometimes altered and this exercise is going on and we have renewed it in our demarche,” he said. But later, in an interview with NDTV, Mukherjee said every country had the right to protect its territorial integrity and take appropriate action when necessary. Asked if that meant he was not ruling out military action, he said: “I am not making any comment on the military option, what I am saying is that every sovereign country has the right to protect its territorial integrity and take appropriate action and when it feels necessary to take that appropriate action.” Peace process: He also said that it had become ‘difficult’ to continue the peace process with Pakistan ‘in this atmosphere’. His comments followed a meeting of India’s security cabinet to discuss a strategy after the Mumbai attacks. Meanwhile, senior Indian Foreign Ministry officials gave a briefing to envoys of 12 countries, citizens of which were killed in the Mumbai attacks.
Courtesy DailyTimes