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Terror is sole focus of Indo-Pak talks, says Krishna

February 17, 2010 19:33 IST
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A week before Indo-Pak talks are slated to resume, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said India was not restarting the Composite Dialogue and that India will have terror on its agenda when the foreign secretaries meet.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, Krishna said, "The brief for our secretary is that terror is the centre and focus point of talks."

"Let the nation not be under mistaken inference that composite dialogues are being renewed. Thecomposite dialogues are suspended from the Indian point of view. The issues that we raised remained to be addressed by Pakistan with a degree of seriousness, " he said. Krishna added, "The foreign secretary-level talks concern terror and terror driven activities emanating from Pakistan."

When asked about the demand of opposition parties including the BJP to call off the talks, especially after the German Bakery blast in Pune, Krishna said there was no alternative to talks in the long run, ""If there is a better suggestion in terms of alternatives, the government will consider those alternatives. If the Opposition in their wisdom emanating from being in government can suggest some, the present government will look at them."

Reacting to Jihadi leaders having a free run in Pakistan, Krishna said "It's the way the Pakistan functions. The government perhaps is not capable of restraining the Jihadis from continuing with their vituperative statements against India, showing their hostility openly against India. We have seen that in last sixty years. But we are not going to be influenced by that. We feel they the only a fringe minority group. We proceed on that assumption that a large majority of people in Pakistan want peace, cordiality and friendship with India."

The 26/11 attacks will also be a talking point. "In the present talks after 14 months, we provided them (Pakistan) with document to carry out further investigations in Pakistan as the crime (Mumbai terror attack) was committed, hatched carried out by Pakistanis. We thought it is necessary that after 14 months what they have done to address our concerns, and that is the reason we have decided to go ahead with the talks," Krishna said.

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