Dialogue only after assurance from Pakistan: Tharoor

New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) India Monday said it was never
against talking to the neigbhours but the composite dialogue
with Pakistan can only be resumed after Islamabad gives an
assurance that New Delhi does not have to "fear" about
Mumbai-like attacks emanating from their soil.

Making a fresh demand that Pakistan should bring the
perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to book which will help in
reviving the Indo-Pak dialogue, Minister of State for External
Affairs Shashi Tharoor said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
message to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was "very clear
and consistent".

"The message is take necessary steps in your own
country to bring to book those who perpetrated these horrors
on our soil and then give us enough assurance for your own
conduct that we will not have to fear this again.

"...But given that what happened in November, came
from Pakistan, the first steps have to come also from
Pakistan... And then we will certainly have a good basis for
reviving talks," he told reporters here.

Emphasising that the parameters for the talks were
"very clear", Tharoor said New Delhi has already said it is
willing to engage but it expects "certain very positive"
actions from the other side that its territory will not be
"willfully used to do us harm".

"We have never been opposed to talking to our
neighbours. On the contrary, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has
been a fervent advocate of good relations with Pakistan,"
Tharoor said. PTI JVN
PMR
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