Act fast against 26/11 perpetrators, India tells Pakistan

A day after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in New Delhi that India’s patience was running out on terror attacks, with roots in Pakistan, Defence Minister A.K. Antony repeated the warning.

India on Thursday asked Pakistan to take “strong, convincing” action against perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, saying unless they were brought to book, it will remain impatient. It also asked the U.S. to advise Pakistan to dismantle the terror infrastructure and to stop use of its soil by terrorist groups to carry out attacks inside India, adding the government and the people did not want any confrontation with the neighboring countries, but it would be difficult to move forward unless Pakistan acted.

“Unless Government of Pakistan takes action against the involved in the heinous acts of 26/11, (i.e.) strong, convincing action to dismantle the terrorist outfits across the border, Indian people will be always impatient,” Antony told reporters on the sidelines of the NCC Republic Day Parade Camp in New Delhi.

Antony was responding to queries regarding U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates’ remarks that it would “not be unreasonable to assume that India’s patience will be limited were there to be further attacks” such as the 26/11 and if such patience would wear out in case of another terror attack.

“What he told yesterday, I also told him that our people are becoming impatient. So you please advise Pakistan. They must act against those involved in terrorist activities such as 26/11 and also almost all these terrorist outfits operating across the border are still very active,” he said.

In recent weeks, Antony has talked tough on the issue of Islamabad’s follow-up action on the Mumbai terror attacks. Army chief Deepak Kapoor too got into a controversy on his “war doctrine” on countering twin threats from Pakistan and China.

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday told the United States that it would assess benefits from further defence agreements which Washington says will give New Delhi the advantage of high technology. The U.S. insists that India sign the Communications Inter-Operability and Security Memorandum of Understanding (CISMOA) and the Logistic Supplies Agreement (LSA) after agreeing last year to a standardized End User Verification Agreement.

At his meeting with Robert Gates, A.K. Antony said the proposal to conclude umbrella agreements like CISMOA would “need to be assessed from the viewpoint of the benefits which would accrue to India.” At a media interaction later, Dr. Gates admitted that the U.S. had so far not spelt out how India would gain by agreeing to these two pacts. These would allow it access to the highest American cryptology information, for instance, provided on the C130J Hercules medium-lift transport aircraft India was buying.

Gates said he told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his department would provide concrete instances of the advantages to India from these pacts that, among other things, promoted geospatial data-sharing. During the discussions, Antony conveyed to Gates India’s concern over denial of export licenses for various defence-related requirements of the armed forces.

Referring to the inclusion of some Indian public sector defence undertakings and Defence Research and Development Organization labs in the U.S. ‘Entity List,” he said such restrictions were anomalous in the backdrop of steady improvement of bilateral defence ties.

Gates told the Minister that President Barack Obama had initiated a comprehensive reform of export control regulations. This involved facilitating supply of defence technology and equipment to India, Gates assured. Antony suggested that the U.S. expand its defence trade ties to cover transfer of technology and co-production from the present buyer-seller relationship.

- Asian Tribune -