Pakistan ‘taking dossier seriously’: Narayanan

[LahoreEstate]

* Indian NSA says Islamabad asked two sets of queries on dossier, one has been answered
* Dawa crackdown ‘just cosmetic’

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Pakistan appears to be taking the Indian dossier of evidence on the Mumbai terrorist attacks seriously so far, Indian National Security Adviser MK Narayanan said on Sunday, but added that India would “wait and see”.

“I don’t know what the word ‘satisfied’ [means] but certainly they appear to be taking things seriously and at least they are proceeding in a manner that one would expect an investigative agency to proceed,” he told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN’s ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme.

Narayanan said India was giving Pakistan every opportunity to “prove its bona fide”.

“If the Pakistani state is not involved, then there is no reason why they should not be honest about it,” he said.

Narayanan said Pakistan had asked a number questions on the dossier of evidence India had shared with Pakistan, “to which answers have been provided”. “I assume that they are yet to receive reply to the second set of queries they have made,” he added.

Narayanan also said that Pakistan should hand over the masterminds of the attacks to India. “We feel there is no reason why [Indian citizens who are fugitives in Pakistan] should not be extradited... I agree [that] in the case of Pakistani citizens, the issue is a bigger one, but if they have been accused in a crime which has been of this magnitude or gravity, I think it is in the interest of Indo-Pak relationship [that they should be sent to India]...” Narayanan said in the interview.

“We are only asking for trial. We are not asking for them to be put before firing squad or something. This is reasonable.”

He also said he was “not impressed” with the UN resolution banning Jamaatud Dawa and that the closing down of their camps was “just cosmetic” as they could be reopened elsewhere. He also said the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba leaders under house arrest in Pakistan were ‘house guests’.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg1_4