Pakistan non-committal on action on Abu Jundal info

Phnom Penh - Pakistan on Thursday remained non-committal on whether it would act on information shared by India on LeT terrorist Abu Jundal, days after New Delhi pushed it to take swift action against the perpetrators of 2008 Mumbai attacks.

"We have said this repeatedly and I think that it should require no miscommunication or doubts on each other's intentions because both our countries follow very very similar system which means that we know what is required to try somebody and what is not "...I have repeatedly maintained that and all Pakistan officials have maintained that we mean what we say," Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said.
 
She was replying to a question on whether Pakistan would take action based on information provided by India on Jundal, who handled those involved in the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai, during recent Foreign Secretary-level talks in Delhi.

During their meeting, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai had shared with his counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani the information gathered from Jundal who revealed that he, along with LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, was in the control room in Pakistan during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Mathai also shared the information on Pakistani passport and Pakistan's domestic identity cards issued to Jundal in the name of Riyasat Ali, indicating the involvement of Pakistan's state agencies in the 26/11 attacks.

Khar, who is here to participate in the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting, said: "Today the problems we faced, the menace of terrorism is a common problem and if anybody can convince me that there is any other country in the region which suffers from it more than Pakistan I would be happy to sit down and have a conversation."

Calling for greater cooperation in information sharing, Khar said it was important to share information with each other before sharing it with the media.

"I think it is also important that we are able to share information with each other before we share information with the media because that is also a trust building measure because it shows that we are serious about resolving the issue rather than making an issue out of the issue. I think that's the message," she said.

"So when we are the first one to suffer from that (terrorism) then it is in our interest or both the countries to look at it as regional players and to be able to deal with this menace at a regional level and bilaterally also. So we are committed to doing whatever we can to assist each other in dealing with the menace. I think that is the approach we need to follow in building of trust," Khar said.