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Qureshi: no training camps in Pakistan
NEW DELHI: Visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said there were no terrorist training camps in Pakistan. The country was pursing a policy of cooperation to add a new chapter in bilateral relationship with India. Kashmir was an outstanding issue on which Pakistan preferred a “peaceful, negotiated settlement.”

Asked where terrorists were being trained if not in Pakistan, he said, “It is not confined to Pakistan. There have been attacks and suicides in Afghanistan, Iraq. This is an international network and has to be dealt with at an international level. It is a global issue and has to be tackled on that basis.”

Interacting with the media at the India Women’s Press Corps here, Mr. Qureshi said he did not cut short his visit in the wake of the terror attacks so as to express “solidarity” and “lend support.” “I have come here to build bridges. I am equally saddened by what has happened.”

Asked about India’s assertion that initial information had shown the involvement of Pakistan elements in the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Qureshi said, “How can you be so sure? You have to build trust. Without trust there can be no beginning. There are extreme and rogue elements in every society. In February the people of Pakistan spoke and rejected extreme fringe elements.”

To a question, he said the Indian government should have pondered more before pointing a finger at Pakistan. “The leadership must rise above politics and domestic compulsions.”

Appealing for cooperation and not accusations, he stressed the need for strengthening the anti-terrorism mechanism that had been set up between India and Pakistan. “Terrorists are barbaric and inhuman and we have to eliminate them collectively.”

On what action the Pakistan government had taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba, he said, Pakistan had banned LeT. “To give a value judgment during this moment is not proper. Experience shows that there should not be a knee-jerk reaction. When the Samjhauta Express bombing happened there were a lot of accusations, but today investigations have reversed that.”

Claiming that the Pakistan government was going after terrorists, he said such incidents were happening to disrupt the India-Pakistan dialogue process. He said the present government in Pakistan did not subscribe to the values of the Taliban and was looking at the curricula of all madrasas to discourage teaching of militancy.
Posted by: john frum 2008-11-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=256198