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Balochistan evidence given to Delhi: PM:
Talks only way to build trust, India told

By Ahmad Hassan

ISLAMABAD, July 18: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday that in his meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh earlier this week, he had given evidence of New Delhi’s involvement in the Balochistan unrest and convinced him that talks were the only way for confidence building and resolution of all outstanding issues between the two countries.

Mr Gilani told a news conference at the Prime Minister’s House on Saturday that Pakistan had ample proof of Indian involvement in the Balochistan trouble.

When asked if omitting the Kashmir issue from the agenda and from a joint statement was a deliberate shift, Mr Gilani explained: “Mr Singh said in talks with me that he is ready to discuss all issues which will be put on the table and that he is not shy of talks on any issue”.

He said Mr Singh was a statesman and there was a realisation on both sides that 1.5 billion people of Pakistan and India could not be made hostage to any single issue while ignoring other maladies like poverty, hunger and diseases.

“We have again asked Indian authorities, through a dossier, to provide more information of Pakistani elements’ involvement in the Mumbai attacks.”

Mr Gilani said when Mr Singh expressed apprehensions about another Mumbai-like terrorist attack on his country, he told him that India should share with Pakistan any intelligence it had about another terrorist plot.

The prime minister said that Pakistan was investigating and was determined to bring to justice perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

About US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s statement in New Delhi that Washington expected Islamabad to crush terrorism, Mr Gilani said: “Whatever we do, we do in our own interest and on our own initiative. We don’t care who is pleased and who is not by our efforts.”

On his talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the prime minister said he discussed the disturbance in Balochistan and tried to convince him that political instability is not in the interest of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

About the army action in Swat and tribal areas, the prime minister said: “We will continue to fight against all those elements who challenge the writ of the government and we will make sure that all displaced people return to their homes after all areas are cleared of all terrorists.”