m&c South Asia
Aid to Pakistan will depend to its "behaviour," Senator Kerry says South Asia News
Dec 15, 2008, 12:57 GMT
New Delhi - US Senator John Kerry said Monday there was 'strong evidence' that the Mumbai attackers came from Pakistan and Washington's assistance to Pakistan will depend on its 'behaviour' in dealing with militant outfits.
Kerry met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi, as Indian officials blame Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for the Mumbai carnage that left over 170 people dead.
Kerry, who will be the chairman of the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations after Barack Obama takes over as president next month, asked Islamabad to act against militant outfits operating on its soil.
'It is very important indeed that the assistance that we're providing over the course of the next months be tied to [Pakistan's] behaviour,' Kerry told reporters in Delhi after meeting the Indian leaders.
'We all know it was planned. We all know they [the Mumbai attackers] came from Pakistan and we understand the training that took place in that regard. So there is strong evidence,' he was quoted by the PTI news agency as saying.
During his meeting with Singh, Kerry conveyed Obama's message of Washington's intention to keep pressuring Pakistan to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the country, IANS news agency reported quoting sources.
Kerry also shared with Singh the Obama administration's plan to pressure Pakistan into bringing its spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) - which is accused by Delhi of backing several militants attacks against India - under civilian control, the report said.
'It is imperative that the intelligence service of Pakistan will not be able to make its own choices or operate outside of the standards that we have a right to expect,' Kerry said.
Briefing Indian journalists on Sunday, Kerry had said outfits like LeT were formed by the ISI to fight Indian rule in Kashmir. But he said the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari was keen to sever those links.
'They formed it and they know they formed it. But they didn't know that the LeT would graduate into an enterprise of its own,' Kerry said, adding he believed the ISI was not linked to Mumbai attacks 'unless at some lower level.'
Kerry's visit follows a number of visits by US officials including that of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and Senator John McCain.
Kerry was scheduled to leave for Islamabad later on Monday where he is due to meet the Pakistani leadership.
Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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