Homeland Security

India to continue efforts to isolate Pakistan in int'l arena: Pranab

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, April 17, IRNA – While asserting that the Centre was convinced that both Pakistan and Bangladesh were perpetrating terror against India, Pranab Mukherjee Friday said: "UPA government would continue its efforts to isolate Pakistan in the international arena".

"Pakistan has been isolated like never before and they are facing all this after 26/11," Mukherjee said while talking to mediapersons in Agartala, UNI reported.

Adding that the international community had been successfully convinced by India that the Mumbai attacks had originated from Pakistan and Bangladesh, which was solely aimed at destabilising Indian sovereignty, External Affairs Minister and senior Congress leader Pranab Mukharjee asserted that the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was in favour of dealing with Pakistan diplomatically without using any bullet power on the Indo-Pak border.

Mukherjee refuted the allegation of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) that the Congress was ''soft'' towards Pakistan and failed to contain terrorism in the country.

He claimed that after 62 years of India's Independence, for the first time, Pakistan had admitted that a section of its nationals was involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes.

''During the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, Parliament, Red Fort and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly were attacked and the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee advocated 'hot persuasion' against Pakistan, avoiding diplomatic strategies, and India deployed huge forces along the border.

Moreover, landmines were planted on thousands acres of land but it yielded nothing except bitter relations,'' Mukherjee said.

''The result of Vajpayee's 'hot persuasion' was that more than a thousand poor farmers lost their lives in explosions because the high velocity winds and rats displaced the mines and deposited them on farmland which exploded when the farmers went to till the land for cultivation,'' he claimed.

''However, when I assumed charge as External Affairs Minister I spoke to the Pakistan President on three points - to comply with the assurance given by his government to Vajpayeeji in 2004 and Manmohanji in 2008 that they should not entertain anti-Indian activities, dismantling terrorist hideouts on Pak soil, and handing over the Pak terrorists who were exchanged after the Kandhar plane hijack,'' he said.