India on Thursday asked Pakistan to "show the same force" and resolve in fighting anti-India terrorists operating from its soil as it had done combating the Taliban. "Pakistan has taken certain steps like fighting the Taliban in the Swat valley," Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters when asked about Islamabad's commitment in fighting terrorists targeting India. "We expect Pakistan should go after the terrorists, who are targeting India, with the same force," he said. Asked about the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, suspected to be the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, Krishna said Islamabad had appealed in court against the verdict and "the law should take its course".
"Pakistan should take action against any head of a terrorist organisation working against India," the minister said.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Islamabad would act against the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) if it were found guilty of involvement in the Mumbai attacks. "We will take action against LT if any proof is found," Qureshi told reporters in Phuket, Thailand, on the sidelines of a regional moot. "We are waiting for the confession statement of Kasab though appropriate channels," Qureshi said.
Krishna and Qureshi did meet in Phuket on the sidelines of an ASEAN moot, but left detailed bilateral talks for their September interaction on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). "We exchanged greetings when we met each other at the dinner hosted by Thailand [for foreign ministers of ASEAN and East Asia Summit countries] last night [Wednesday]," Krishna had told reporters in Phuket. "Perhaps we will be meeting in New York in September. Modalities are being discussed," Krishna said. "It's unlikely we are going to be in the same room before the UNGA."
According to the India-Pakistan joint statement issued in Egypt, the foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet as often as possible ahead of the meeting between the foreign ministers in New York.
Without clearly pointing to Pakistan, Krishna drew the attention of the ASEAN to New Delhi's "terror-infested neighbourhood" and called for quicker intelligence sharing and effective cooperation to combat terrorism.
"Without naming Pakistan, I spoke about the Mumbai terror attacks. We talked about our terror-infested neighbourhood," Krishna said when asked whether he highlighted Pakistan's alleged complicity in the Mumbai attacks and other incidents of terrorism in India at the ASEAN meeting.