The Hindu : 'Pak. must address India's concerns'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 11, 2002

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'Pak. must address India's concerns'
By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 10. The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sushma Swaraj, has said that the minimum India would expect from Pakistan for resumption of the process of dialogue is a communication from Islamabad on the concerns expressed by New Delhi.

In interviews to Pakistani dailies on the last day of her stay here in connection with the SAARC Information Ministers' conference, Ms. Swaraj said India could consider the resumption of the stalled dialogue if Pakistan was prepared to hand over seven to ten persons from the list of 20 wanted criminals and terrorists given by India. New Delhi also expected ``considerable reduction'' on the ground in cross-border terrorism.

In an interview to The News, Ms. Swaraj said, ``India will wait and see the change in the ground situation before agreeing for talks and if Pakistan hands over seven to ten fugitives wanted by us and brings down cross-border terrorism by 30 to 50 per cent, then the relations can be normalised.''

She also accused the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, of going back on his pledge to crack down on militancy by declaring the Kashmir movement a ``freedom struggle''.

``Gen. Musharraf has gone back on his path-breaking speech of January 12 by reviving his earlier stand on Kashmir in his February 5 address to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,'' she said.

Referring to steps taken by Gen. Musharraf against religious extremism and regarding the ban on `jehadi' outfits taking part in militant activities in Kashmir, she said ``if he considers the Kashmir issue a freedom struggle, there is no use of all those steps that you have mentioned''.

She argued that such steps only benefited Pakistan. ``Yes, a change in Pakistan's policy has come after September 11 and December 13, but it has been Pakistan-specific and not related to cross-border terrorism.'' Ms. Swaraj did not feel the ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba had in any way affected cross-border terrorism.

When pointed out that there was no extradition treaty between the two countries to hand over the wanted persons to India, she said, ``our External Affairs Ministry will consider it, if your Foreign Office says it is considering the list of fugitives wanted by India.''

She said that Gen. Musharraf, during his visit to India last year, positively responded to the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani's proposal to have an extradition treaty between the two countries, but backed out when he was asked to hand over Dawood Ibrahim.

Regarding the list of wanted persons handed over by India, she said New Delhi had provided necessary evidence about their involvement in various crimes in India. Also, ``India was not averse to extraditing the persons wanted by Pakistan. Our attitude is not that of not handing over the culprits.''

In an interview to the Dawn, Ms. Swaraj attributed the failure of the Agra summit to Pakistan's refusal to denounce ``cross-border terrorism'' and its excessive emphasis on Kashmir to be recognised as the ``core issue'' in talks between the two countries.

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