Don't acerbate tensions - Gilani

Islamabad: Brushing aside persistent Indian demands to hand over those allegedly behind the Mumbai carnage, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has categorically stated that Pakistani nationals will not be left to the mercy of foreign judicial systems.

"Indian politicians should mend their ways as their statements are stoking tensions. Pakistan is taking action against terrorists and terrorist organisations according to its own law and this is a continuing process," he said addressing members of the media.

Gilani had earlier acknowledged receipt of a 52-page dossier passed on by New Delhi through the Central Intelligence Agency and said the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had been entrusted to give feedback. "The evidence received from India is being examined," Gilani said.

Biden's reassurance

US officials frequenting Islamabad in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks have all along suggested closer cooperation with Indian officials but the tone of US Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, who recently visited Islamabad, held out some reassurance for harried Pakistani officials.

Biden not only supported Islamabad's proposal for a joint India-Pakistan investigation into the Mumbai attack, but also vowed to increase economic and military aid to Pakistan.

Gilani said the Mumbai attack pointed to the failure of the Indian intelligence and internal security apparatus but Pakistan had still expressed its readiness to do its utmost to facilitate the investigation.

"The world has its own double standards as it keeps mum on [the] Israeli carnage in Palestine and [the] Indian brutalities in Kashmir," he lamented.

"The world kept silent when, on October 18, 2007, the rally to welcome Benazir Bhutto back from exile was targeted and 180 people were killed. And then during the attack on the Marriot hotel, dozens of Pakistanis including foreigners were killed," he added.

President Asif Ali Zardari also lashed out at what he said were India's designs to extend its hegemony over Pakistan. "We acted in a mature manner in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks as we know rising tensions can jeopardise peace in this region," Zardari told a gathering of foreign diplomats, part of efforts to reach out to the international community to highlight steps taken to step up cooperation with India.

Crackdown

Zardari sought to make it amply clear Pakistan would not allow any terrorist or terrorist organisation to use its soil to launch attacks on another country.

Authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on the Jamaat-ud Dawah (JD) after the United Nations Security Council declared it a terrorist organisation in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.

The JD leadership denies any link with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant organisation operating out of Pakistani Kashmir that has been on the UN Security Council's list of banned organisations. India however insists the JD is a front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which it says masterminded the Mumbai attacks.