Terrorists do not want normalisation of Indo-Pak ties: Haqqani

Boston, Apr 10 (PTI) Terming Indo-Pak ties as the "worst
divorce" between a couple, Pakistan's envoy to the US Husain
Haqqani has said the terrorists based in his country do not
want relations with India's capital New Delhi to normalise.
While acknowledging that the Mumbai attacks case in
Pakistan was proceeding with a slow pace, Haqqani said the
26/11 strikes were orchestrated by extremists who want India
and Pakistan to "go to war".
The two countries need to work together to eliminate
terrorism from the region and ensure that "there are no
terrorist victims in Pakistan or in India," he said here.
"The terrorists in Pakistan do not want Pakistan and
India to normalise (their ties). The extremists want Pakistan
and India to go to war and so they orchestrated the Mumbai
tragedy," Haqqani said in response to a question during a
seminar on 'The Future of South Asia' organised by the South
Asia Initiative at Harvard University.
He said Pakistan remains engaged with India to make sure
"justice is provided to victims of the Mumbai tragedy."
"Since the day that (26/11 Mumbai attack) happened we
have always maintained that we are on the side of the victims
and we will certainly bring the perpetrators to justice if
those perpetrators are found to be in any way from or
connected to Pakistan and those that have been identified are
on trial and they will be dealt with in accordance with the
law," Haqqani told PTI after the seminar.
Earlier, speaking to an audience of Harvard students and
professors, he said Pakistan's response to the 26/11 Mumbai
attacks has been "very clear" and it is pursuing the case,
though he admitted that the process has been slow.
"It is a slow process. There is something wrong there
(Pakistan) in the system. If the Mumbai case is proceeding
slowly it is not because we (Pakistan) don't want it to
proceed fast, it is just that there is an in-built structural
issue here which will take time to change.
"There are rules, there are advantages that the defence
has in terms of being able to postpone (the case), etc," he
said.
Describing India-Pakistan relationship as the "worst
divorce" between a couple who have each been given "nuclear
weapons," Haqqani said: "It is important to understand that
the tragedy of 1947 was a tragedy for both people, millions
suffered.
"We need to humanise each other and understand that we
live in the same neighbourhoood, have a lot of shared history
and we definitely have the potential for shared economic and
other relations. But they cannot be dealt by demonising one
another."