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| Real Sense of Urgency and Transparency Needed: Rice | | | AGENCIES
New Delhi, December 3: Mounting pressure on Pakistan, the US on Wednesday asked it to act with "urgency" and "transparency" on the leads in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks and implement its "stated" commitment to "cooperate fully" in bringing perpetrators to justice.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was rushed in the Capital by President George W Bush amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks, made it clear that Islamabad will have to "follow the leads wherever they go" and reach the "source" of incident.
Not ruling out participation of Al- Qaeda in the Mumbai strikes, she told reporters that the US and India needed to develop long-term strategies to prevent such attacks, particularly through active sharing of intelligence.
Describing the strikes in Mumbai as "attacks at India and its integration with the world", she said "this is a time when cooperation of all parties who have any information is really required. This is a different situation... We have to act with a sense of urgency and act with resolve."
Rice, who will be travelling to Islamabad on Thursday to discuss the Mumbai attacks, said "Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency and cooperate fully and transparently. That message has been delivered and will be delivered to Pakistan."
"...What is important now is, of course, to go to the source and to know what happened, to follow every lead, wherever it may lead and to bring those to justice who did this," said the Secretary of State who will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee before travelling to Islamabad on Thursday.
The assertive comments by Rice assume significance as these came after Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari rejected India's demand for handover of 20 most wanted terrorists, who are in Pakistan and wanted in India in connection with many terror incidents. Rice refused to comment directly on India's demand to Pakistan for the handover of terrorists but said "I am going to take as a firm commitment, Pakistan's stated commitment to get to bottom of this and make them know that they are enemies of Pakistan as well as India."
India has already shared with the US evidence regarding involvement of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Mumbai attacks. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) sleuths are also involved in the probe and have questioned one terrorist, who hails from Pakistan and was arrested during the attacks.
To a question in this regard, Rice replied: I have already sent a message and that message has been received favourably by Pakistan, which is that whatever these leads, people have to be brought to justice.
"Government will need to make certain that they are doing every thing to garner information so that they prevent further attacks," she said.
Rice also said that over the last seven years, the US has gained good experience in the wake of 9/11 attacks on how terrorists carried out attacks and added that the funding aspect should not be underestimated.
She noted that the US learned about how terror operations were carried out and the money flow.
"Funding is the most important tool which has been used. It is important to get into the bottom of funding," Rice added. |
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