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Pakistan does not appear keen to eliminate terrorism: PM

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday said that he was not at all satisfied with the steps taken by Pakistan in tackling the menace of terrorism and ruled out talks with Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the prime minister said it was unfortunate that India's neighbourhood had in recent years emerged as a 'principal' source of terrorism and religious extremism.

Speaking to reporters in Lucknow just before leaving for Nepal to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Kathmandu, Vajpayee said, "It seems like Pakistan does not want to stop terrorism if one went by reports emanating from that country on action taken to contain terrorist outfits operating from its soil."

The steps taken so far are not 'satisfactory', he said adding India would like to have full details relating to the action taken against terrorist outfits and would also like to ascertain if they included those responsible for the attack on Parliament.

Referring to the arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammad activists, the prime minister asked, "We want to know who are these people? What are their criminal antecedents? How many of them were connected with the attack on Parliament? How many of them have been involved in earlier terrorist attacks in India?"

Vajpayee denied the BJP was planning to create a war-like atmosphere to buttress its poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

Asserting that India was not against a dialogue with Pakistan, Vajpayee said there was no use of holding talks as long as Pakistan continued to aid and abet cross border terrorism.

Significantly, a statement circulated among presspersons did not mention Pakistan among the six countries with whose leaders Vajpayee plans to have bilateral meetings on the fringes of the summit.

Reacting to media reports about the possibility of a war between India and Pakistan, Vajpayee said, "I have never said a war is inevitable. We are using diplomatic means."

He also denied having said that India would use nuclear weapons against Pakistan.

"We will not use atomic weapons for anything other than our own defence. We will also not use nuclear weapons against any country which does not possess them," he clarified.

Vajpayee said India was, however, committed to no-first-use of nuclear weapons in the event of a war.

Pointing out that all the countries in South Asian are affected by terrorism, he said the countries will have to resolve not to encourages terrorism in any manner.

Asked whether India would raise the issue of Pakistan's role in fomenting cross border terrorism at the SAARC meet, Vajpayee said terrorism would be discussed in broader perspectives.

With inputs from PTI

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