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Pak. issued fresh demarche
By Atul Aneja
NEW DELHI, FEB. 11. Two days after the deportation of Aftab Ansari from the UAE, India has reiterated that Pakistan should take action on the list of 20 terrorists and criminals that it had been sent.
In a fresh verbal demarche issued to the Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner, Jaleel Abbas Jilani by Arun Singh, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, India regretted that Islamabad was yet to take action on the list of terrorists that had been handed over to it.
Pakistan had maintained that India had not provided it enough evidence that would merit action on these individuals.
But New Delhi, citing the UAE precedent, said that the fight against terrorism should take recourse to extensive political cooperation as well. Official sources said that Aftab Ansari, who has been implicated in the shooting incident outside the American Center in Kolkata last month was ``deported'' by the UAE authorities on the basis of political understanding and not ``extradited'' as that would have involved time-consuming legal procedures.
Analysts here said that by issuing a demarche today, India was attempting to focus international attention on the continued use of Pakistani soil for terrorist activity.
In fact, by officially expressing its concerns, India was reinforcing the attention Pakistan had drawn following the deportation of Aftab Ansari. Ansari, according to officials here was apprehended bearing Pakistani travel documents in Dubai. He was also in contact with the Pakistan-based Omar Sheikh, who is suspected to have masterminded the high-profile kidnapping of the American journalist, Daniel Pearl, in Karachi on January 23.
With Gen. Musharraf set to begin an official visit to the U.S. on Tuesday and the American public opinion already incensed with the abduction of Mr. Pearl, the assessment here is that India's observations are unlikely to go unnoticed in Washington.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Nirupama Rao, said that Pakistan was also obliged under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373 to act on the list of 20. This resolution calls upon all countries to root out terrorism from their territory. ``No support of any kind including safe havens should be provided to terrorism'' under the framework of international law and the existing global consensus on countering terrorism, she stressed.
India, Mr. Jilani was told, wanted Pakistan to follow up on the Pakistani President's January 12 address in which he had asserted the need to crack down on terrorism. ``If Pakistan was sincere in its recently declared commitment to fight against international terrorism, it must apprehend and hand over these persons,'' the spokesperson said. India, Mr. Jilani was told, still awaited a response from Islamabad on its two similar demarches of December 31 and January 18.
`Put pressure'
PTI reports:
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today hoped that pressure would mount on Pakistan to hand over the 20 terrorists and criminals sought by India.
``The pressure on Pakistan should mount... We are also laying stress on the list (of fugitives given by India),'' he told reporters in an informal chat here.
Appreciating the attitude of the UAE in deporting Aftab Ansari, Mr. Vajpayee said, ``this process has to be carried forward''.
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