"Talks with Pak if its soil not used for anti-India attacks"

New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) India is willing to hold sustained
dialogue with Pakistan if Islamabad gives an assurance that
its soil will not be used to direct terrorist attacks and
foment anti-India feelings, Indian External Affairs Minister S
M Krishna said Thursday.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya
Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament), Krishna said there
was uninterrupted dialogue from 2004 till the Mumbai terrorist
attack. "The attack in Mumbai was a point where we had to
discontinue the composite dialogue," he said.
"India will be willing to hold sustained dialogue with
Pakistan" if the Islamic nation was to guarantee that its
"soil is not going to be directed for terrorist attacks
(against India) and foment anti-India feelings," he said.
"The biggest confidence building measure that Pakistan can
do is to prevent any future terrorist attack (on India) and
prevent speeches made by Jihadi forces," Krishna said.
"We would like to have friendly, cordial and cooperative
relations with Pakistan," he said.
The Prime Ministers of the two countries had in Thimpu
identified trust deficit as the impeding factor which needed
to be bridged.
Meeting of foreign secretaries and foreign ministers of
the two countries was decided as one of the steps to lessen
trust deficit.
"Our effort has been to fulfil that mandate given to us by
the Prime Minister," he said.
Krishna said India considers Hafiz Saeed, leader of
Jamaat-ud-Daawa - a Pakistani organisation having links with
Lashkar-e-Taiba, as the mastermind of the Mumbai attack.
"Unfortunately, Pakistan becomes subjective whenever we
bring Hafiz Saeed and others in discussion," he said. "We
certainly would like Pakistan to be helpful and cooperative
with India so we can live in peace with each other."
"The fulfilment, in letter and spirit, of the solemn
commitment given by the leaders of Pakistan, at the highest
level, of not allowing territory under Pakistan's control to
be used for any terrorist activity directed against India,
would be the biggest confidence building measure," he said.
Krishna said he had in his talks with Foreign Minister of
Pakistan on July 15 stated that any further terrorist attack
on India emanating from Pakistani soil would cause immense
harm to the normalisation process.
He called for "credible and firm action against terrorist
groups and their leaders, like the JuD and Hafiz Saeed, who
continue to incite violence against India."

Krishna said he conveyed India's willingness to have
further interaction on pressing humanitarian issues "as part
of a step-by-step, graduated and forward looking approach to
expanding dialogue to cover all issues of mutual interest and
concern."
There are 582 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails and
likewise there are 412 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails, he
said adding New Delhi wants to hold dialogue on early release
and repatriation of prisoners and fishermen in jails in both
countries, promotion of trade and commerce and greater
people-to-people contact.
During the July 15 dialogue in Islamabad, the Foreign
Minister of Pakistan assured that his country will do
everything in its power to fulfil the commitment of not
allowing its territory to be used for terrorism against India.
Besides, he gave an assurance that the investigation in
the Mumbai terrorist attack case, taking into account the
additional information obtained from the recent interrogation
of David Headley, would be pursued vigorously to unravel the
full conspiracy and bring all the perpetrators to justice, he
said.
"The detailed and frank discussions held during the visit
enabled both the countries to develop a better understanding
of each others' position and points of view on various
issues," he said.
"Despite differences of opinion on the way forward on a
few issues, there was a broad understanding on a number of
other issues," he added. PTI ANZ
MYR