26/11 Trial: Pakistan Tells India to be patient

NEW DELHI: In a rather impudent move, Pakistan on Wednesday told India to “be patient” over the slow pace of trial of masterminds of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, comparing it with the investigations
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NEW DELHI: In a rather impudent move, Pakistan on Wednesday told India to “be patient” over the slow pace of trial of masterminds of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, comparing it with the investigations into the Samjhauta Express blasts.

“I detect that in certain cases, there is an impatience that is seen. But, objectively speaking, a lot has happened, that is not on the surface, perhaps, not readily available to you to come to a reasoned conclusion,” Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said in answer to a query over the delay in the trials in Pakistan.

Bashir said both countries could not be “mired in the past.” “It is counter-productive to just repeat a few words and phrases,” said Bashir. While the visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar did not mention terrorism during the joint media appearance with her Indian counterpart S M Krishna after their two hours of talks, she did answer to questions on the issue and expressed her puzzlement over the “media hype” in India over the delayed trial in the 2008 attacks.

She even compared the ‘delayed’ 2611 trial with the ‘slow pace’ of investigations into the Samjhauta Express blasts in 2007, in which Pakistani nationals were a majority among the 68 people killed.

“Trials are judicial processes which take time. Compared to the Samjhauta Express trial, this trial (26/11) is in much progress,” Khar told a private television channel.

At the same time, she said that there had been progress on the 26/11 front, with a judicial commission set to visit India after an agreement between Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram and his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik.

Counter-terrorism was part of the gamut of subjects discussed at the meeting of Krishna and Khar, with both leaders agreeing to strengthen cooperation in that front.

The joint statement did not have any explicit reference to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, except in reference to the fact that the Home Secretaries of both sides had discussed the issue during their talks. Krishna said that both India and Pakistan have “agreed that terrorism poses a continuing threat to peace and security and reiterate the firm and undiluted commitment of our two countries to fight and eliminate the scourge in all forms.”

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