Pakistan's 'Dawn' takes umbrage at Parrikar's comment

March 03, 2016 14:14

On Tuesday, Shiv Sena member Sanjay Raut wanted to know in the Rajya Sabha whether the Pathankot was merely a terror attack or an armed operation carried out with the support of the Pakistani army.

Responding to him, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, in his written reply, said the Pathankot attack in January was carried out by Pakistan's 'non-State actors' who operate with the support of the Pakistani establishment.

'Non-State actors from Pakistan are surely involved. This is for sure. Any non-State actors there, they cannot function smoothly without full state support,' Parrikar said in a written reply.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper has taken umbrage at the minister's remarks, and in an editorial has said: A sensible response by Mr Parrikar would have been to state that investigations were ongoing. A more expansive response to Mr Raut's question would have had the Indian defence minister acknowledging the role of non-State actors in the attack on the Pathankot air force base, but avoiding speculation about the link to the Pakistani state.

Wondering whether the 'Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar veering off script or reading from notes that his government has given him,' Dawn wrote: 'The Indian defence minister's loose remarks underscore the challenges that bilateral dialogue has to contend with: when dialogue is stalled, hawkish elements in both countries can and do casually undermine the environment for talks and make it that much more difficult to resume them.'

Read the full comment here.

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