NEW DELHI: Slamming Pakistan for not acting against the perpetrators of the Pathankot attack and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said Pakistan was “pretending to fall asleep” despite substantive evidence shared by India.
In an interview for India Today, Parrikar said, “If someone pretends to fall asleep, it is very difficult to find out (what they are up to). The government has continuously given evidence to Pakistan…if they are serious, they can act.”
He asserted there was no question of allowing Pakistani investigators access to the Pathankot fighter base as the incident happened in India and it was for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to conduct a probe. “
They (Pakistan) have to investigate the role of the people in their country,” he said.
On David Headley’s recent testimony, Parrikar said he didn’t need the approver’s evidence to prove that Pakistani handlers were behind the Mumbai strike.
Parrikar said the defence ministry was working on a plan to trim the military’s structure. “Effective component of the armed forces will not be compromised… but unnecessary part of the military can be removed.”
On the Rafale deal, he said pricing was the only issue that needed to be resolved and it could take a few months. “Unless I get the right price, I can’t sign the deal.”
On Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s reported comment that the 1999 Kargil “misadventure” by Pakistani army was a stab in the back for the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Swarup said Sharif had only confirmed a truth that everyone was aware of.
Pak asks India to fix dates for foreign secy talks soon
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday called for fixing an early date for the India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talks that were postponed following the Pathankot terror attack.
Foreign office spokesperson Muhammad Nafees Zakaria said both sides were in contact on the issue, but no date had yet been fixed. The talks should be finalised as early as possible, he said at his weekly briefing.
India had cancelled the foreign secretary-level talks, scheduled for January 15 in New Delhi, following the Pathankot terror attack. India blamed Pakistanbased Jiash-e-Mohammed (JeM) for the January 2 attack in which seven security personnel were killed.
Commenting on the JNU row, Zakaria said, “The Kashmiri people have never accepted the unfair trial of Afzal Guru.”
Guru was convicted for the 2001 Parliament attack in which nine security personnel were killed.