India rejects Pak claim on Pillai

New Delhi, July 16 (PTI) India Friday rejected
Pakistan's claim that it was in agreement with it that Home
Secretary G K Pillai's remarks regarding ISI role in Mumbai
attacks were uncalled for.
"At no point during the talks, by no means the External
Affairs Minister (S M Krishna) expressed agreement with
Foreign Minister (Shah Mahmood) Qureshi's opinion," Indian
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.
She was replying to a question about Qureshi's claim at
the press conference Thursday that Pillai's remarks had
vitiated atmosphere and during the talks "both of us were of
the opinion that it was uncalled for".
Asked why Krishna did not rebut Qureshi's claim at the
press conference, Rao said there were a "huge number" of
journalists and in the "pell-mell of to-and-fro queries", it
"may have just happened that the EAM did not react."
Rao, while talking TV channels, said Krishna gave
"absolutely" no indication that he had the same opinion as
Qureshi on Pillai.
She defended Pillai's remarks, saying he was "perfectly
within his rights" to state the Indian position.
Pillai had said that ISI controlled the Mumbai attacks
from "beginning to end".
On talks between Krishna and Qureshi, Rao said Pakistan
wanted to restore the entire spectrum of issues.
"We are not against resumption of dialogue. We have
never said that. We want a serious dialogue, we want a
sustained dialogue, we want to have a meaningful dialogue but
we have to start in a graduated way," she said. More PTI