SENATOR John Kerry, Chairman-designate of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, travelling to the Subcontinent as President-elect Barack Obama's special representative, met Pakistan's political and military leadership at Islamabad on Tuesday and, it seems, went away with the feeling that Islamabad was serious about putting an end to the activities of militant individuals as well as organisations. Speaking at a press conference after his meetings, he observed that the Pakistan government was faced with a fundamental choice of whether or not to protect the lives of its citizens from violence. The Senator received assurances that the persons accused of aiding or abetting the Mumbai attacks would be duly prosecuted, provided sufficient evidence was made available. That would have led him to the conclusion that both Pakistan and India needed to change their mindsets to cooperate in the investigation work and New Delhi should share the evidence with Islamabad. It is good that the point, otherwise so simple and clear, that for an accused to be proceeded against, there should be credible evidence of involvement in the act for which he is to be questioned, is finally sinking in with the US. He believed that the Mumbai attacks had nothing to do with the Kashmir issue. One hopes that the counsel tendered by Senator Kerry, who would be holding a powerful position in the Obama Administration, would be listened to across the border and that the Indians would give up their untenable posture of levelling allegations, on the one hand, and withholding evidence to substantiate them, on the other. This stratagem could not possibly work for long because it underlines the hollowness of New Delhi's claims, which would ultimately be seen as mere propaganda. Sharing the evidence would not only help deal with the Mumbai culprits, but also prove useful in preventing a recurrence. The Senator's call for the resumption of talks between the two countries was not only aimed at removing any misunderstanding caused by the Mumbai incidents but also the resolution of other disputes. Senator Kerry is perhaps the first American leader to have openly agreed to Pakistan's contention that the drone attacks on suspected hideouts of terrorists were proving counterproductive, and promised that he would take up the matter on his return. There is also a need to shed a peculiar mindset in the US Administration about taking over the control of Pakistan's strategic assets. One such suggestion came from a Wall Street columnist Bret Stephens who wrote in his recent article "let's buy their arsenal." Senator Kerry however sounded quite positive when he acknowledged that the lack of adequate capacity of Pakistan's security forces was as impediment to confronting terrorist elements. The delay in upgrading F-16s was one such example. To firm up this capacity and implement a socio-economic programme that would help reduce extremism, he promised to push through the Biden-Lugar bill, but made it clear that the US would this time be strictly monitoring the expenditure.