Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Wednesday that the four-year-long Pakistan- India peace process has been halted after last month's Mumbai attacks, demanding India stop a blame game and provide concrete evidence on the attacks.
Pakistan-India tensions were heightened as the Indian side accused Pakistan-based militant groups of involvement in the terror attacks in India's financial center, which killed more than 170.
"The Mumbai incident has been a setback for the composite dialogue with India," News Network International (NNI) news agency quoted Qureshi as saying.
Speaking at a joint press conference with the visiting Swedish foreign minister in Islamabad, Qureshi hoped the Indian government not to engage itself in a blame game as the finger pointing is not in the interest of both countries.
Qureshi said that the two countries should overcome this hiccup to defeat the common challenge of extremism and terrorism.
Under pressure from India and the United States, Pakistan has intensified clampdown on the suspected groups and arrested some leaders from the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks.
But Pakistan has complained that India ignores its requirement to share information and evidence on the terror attacks.
"If India does not share information about the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan will pursue a procedure to the delisting of the banned organization (JuD) at an appropriate time", the NNI quoted Qureshi.
The JuD was banned by the Pakistani authorities last week after the UN Security Council declared it a terror group.
Pakistan said Saturday that Indian fighter jets had violated its airspace twice, causing unrest for both countries. But Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said later that Indian planes had intruded into Pakistan airspace because of a technical mistake.
(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2008)
