World | India
Blasts aim to derail ties with Pakistan - premier
India's prime minister said recent bombings in the western city of Jaipur were aimed at disrupting newly peaceful ties with rival Pakistan, news reports said on Sunday.
- AP
- Published: 00:16 May 19, 2008
New Delhi: India's prime minister said recent bombings in the western city of Jaipur were aimed at disrupting newly peaceful ties with rival Pakistan, news reports said on Sunday.
"There is no doubt that terrorist elements have many objectives," Manmohan Singh said on Sunday in response to questions about Tuesday's blasts, The Times of India newspaper reported.
One of those objectives is to "prevent normalisation of relations with Pakistan", he was quoted as saying. "We have to be mindful of these nefarious designs." Singh was addressing reporters in West Bengal at the end of a two-day visit to Bhutan.
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is to visit Pakistan next week for the first official talks between the South Asian rivals since a new government took office in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has asked media not to jump to a conclusion about perpetrators of Jaipur blast as authorities in India were reported to have planned to expel illegal Bangladeshis from Rajasthan, officials said in Dhaka yesterday.
"The media should not jump to a conclusion before investigations are completed," foreign affairs adviser of the interim cabinet Iftekhar Ahmad Chowdhury said on Saturday reiterating an earlier call following the blasts as Indian officials suspected Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihad Al-Islami (Huji) links in the serial bombings.
Chowdhury, however, said the terrorists who carried out the "these sordid and heinous deeds have no boundaries".
- With additional inputs by Anisur Rahman, Dhaka correspondent
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