India keeps up pressure, puts peace process with Pak on hold

SRINAGAR: India on Tuesday kept up the pressure on Pakistan with foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee stating that the composite dialogue process had been paused in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks even as Pakistani President Asif Zardari again ruled out handing over any terror suspects.

Barely a week after having demanded in Parliament that Pakistan must act on its stated preparedness to crack down on terror in a verifiable manner, Mukherjee made the significant statement that the peace process had been severely dented by the Mumbai atrocity.

After having admitted that the joint anti-terror mechanism, agreed on by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, had failed, Mukherjee followed up with a tougher dose: "I do admit there is a pause in the composite dialogue process because of the attacks on Mumbai."

The foreign minister added, "What we expect, and what we have pointed out to Pakistan, is that they should fulfil their commitment of not allowing their territory for terrorist attacks against India."

In an interview to a US news weekly, Zardari amended his earlier remarks on the Mumbai terrorists being "stateless actors" and said he agreed with secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's formulation that Pakistan had to be responsible for non-state actors. But even as he did so, Zardari maintained that nobody would be handed over to India. More