Mukherjee says Pakistan must take further steps

NEW DELHI: Pakistan must act to eradicate militant camps, India said on Friday, a day after Islamabad admitted for the first time that the Mumbai attacks had been partly planned on Pakistani soil.Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee described the Pakistani admission as “a positive step,” but stressed that “further steps will be required”. In a later statement to parliament, he described the threat emanating from Pakistan as a “global cancer”.“For the first time it has been recognised officially by Pakistani authorities that the elements are emanating from Pakistan who are responsible for the terror attacks in Mumbai,” Mukherjee said.Stressing that the onus was firmly on Islamabad to bring the suspects to justice, Mukherjee said India hoped the matter would be taken to its “logical conclusion” and the perpetrators punished.However, India on Friday welcomed Pakistan’s acknowledgement the Mumbai attacks were partly planned on its soil. “This is a positive step. We hope that the matter will be taken to its logical conclusion where the aperpetrators are penalised,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.However he also told parliament Pakistan’s reaction to the attacks had been characterised by “prevarication, denial, diversionary tactics and misplaced sense of victimhood” and said it must dismantle all militant infrastructure on its soil.“I do not discount in any way either their intent or their sincerity, but the fact remains that the overwhelming response of official Pakistan to the Mumbai attack was not appropriate to a terrorist attack where innocents were massacred in cold blood.”Mukherjee said Pakistan had to decide how it wanted to handle relations with India. “We are at a point in our relationship where the authorities in Pakistan itself have to choose the kind of relationship that they want with India in the future,” Mukherjee said.“Much depends on actions in the Mumbai case reaching their logical conclusion.” Mukherjee told parliament gains made from a 2004 peace process with Pakistan were at grave risk. That process was “paused” by India after the attack in Mumbai.Mukherjee also said terrorism in Pakistan poses a direct threat to India and the global peace. Mukherjee said we will not rest until the terrorists behind Mumbai terror attacks are brought to justice.Mukherjee said the Mumbai attacks were a crime committed against India. We made it clear to Pakistan that terror from its soil is a direct threat to India, he said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Pakistan had emerged from denial mode.“With this revelation, now the next stage should be eliminating the terrorist camps inside Pakistan and crushing the association between state actors and these terrorist groups,” BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.