India’s Congress wants Pakistan declared terrorist state

[LahoreEstate]

Sunday, February 08, 2009
NEW DELHI: India’s Congress Party on Saturday said the international community should consider declaring Pakistan a terrorist state after it released the scientist, who was accused of selling nuclear secrets around the globe.

“It is time for the international community to think whether to declare Pakistan a terrorist country,” Manish Tewari, the Congress party spokesman, said in New Delhi, in reference to the release of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

The party said Khan was the man at the centre of the world’s most serious nuclear proliferation scandal. The party, which faces election in April, said Dr Qadeer had confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in 2004, but he was pardoned by the Pakistan government, which restricted his movements. It said Khan’s release was a serious security concern.

“Defending him proves Pakistan as not only an exporter of terrorism, but has also given rise to doubts of certain countries, including the United States, that nuclear weapons could go into the hands of terrorists,” Tiwari told reporters.

Meanwhile, India’s army chief said on Saturday the number of militant camps in Pakistan has increased in the past year despite a crackdown by Islamabad.

“I would not talk about the numbers specifically right now...but infrastructure is existing and active,” General Deepak Kapoor told the Press Trust of India (PTI).

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20169