Kashmir issue has no link to terror in India: Mukherjee

Slamming Pakistan for linking Mumbai attacks to non-resolution of Kashmir issue, India on Thursday asked it to take "serious" action to completely dismantle terror infrastructure and end infiltration but maintained that war against the neighbour was not a solution. Talking tough in the Lok Sabha, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee raised questions over Pakistan's sincerity in curbing activities of terror groups operating from its soil as he suggested that "house arrest" of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed was not enough. Intervening in the debate in Lok Sabha on Mumbai attacks, he said India has repeatedly given Pakistan a list of 40 terrorists, including Dawood Ibrahim, with a demand that they be handed over and expressed hope that Islamabad would respond positively. He asked Pakistan to come out of the "denial mode" on existence of terrorists, including "non-state actors", who operate from the confines of that country as he wondered: "did the non-state actors come from heaven, did the non-state actors come from another planet?" Mukherjee also slammed Pakistan for creating a war "hysteria" by indulging in "propaganda" on the basis of a hoax call that "big power" India was going to attack. "That is not the solution," he said when Shiv Sena member Mohan Rawale said India should attack Pakistan in the wake of the terror strikes. Rubbishing efforts by Pakistan to link the terror strikes to non-resolution of Kashmir issue, Mukherjee asserted that such a "straight jacket simple formula" will not help solve the problem as the series of attacks in India are part of global terrorism.

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