‘Pak must take responsibility’
India wants the Pakistan government to take responsibility for the incidents such as the recent one in which five Indian soldiers were killed by Pak Army men on the LoC in the Poonch sector.
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who was speaking to a news channel, also maintained that India has done much more than to contribute to the peace process and emphasised that the Pak government needs to take responsibility for the five soldiers killings as “our meeting point is the civilian elected government of Pakistan, not the Pakistan Army or any other agency.”
The minister further said: “One element is that the regret about what has happened, which has certainly been mentioned. But, there is no indication of acceptance of responsibility.”
He added, “Whether I can expect or not, we have said that we expect responsibility. That hasn’t happened, one. Two, the other concern of what we have been expecting...Culpability for what happened in Mumbai. There in no indication of that. And, finally, the statement doesn’t take into account, the outreach and the extra mile that India has periodically gone to overcome great difficulties posed.”
On approaching Pakistan Army Chief Kayani on cross border issues, he said it will be “wrong” for India go beyond the civilian government. He said: “Our policies need to be directly in association with the elected civilian government. I think it will be wrong for us to go beyond the civilian government, since we hold the civilian government responsible and representative of Pak people and they must answer. Something goes wrong, it’s their responsibility.”
Asked if he was looking forward to the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with PM Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UNGA late in September, Mr Khurshid replied, “If the Prime Minister of our country takes a position, it is fair that we let our Prime Minister take a position.”
On whether the soldiers killings were an attempt to derail the talks between the two countries, he said there may be such possibility but added that it does not take the responsibility away from Pak government.
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