Dialogue will depend on Pakistan's action against terror: Manmohan

A day after his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in Egypt, Prime Minister Mahnmohan Signh Friday made it clear that any "meaningful dialogue" will depend on Islamabad fulfilling its anti-terror pledge "in letter and spirit."

The prime minsiter asked Pakistan to take "sustained, effective and credible action" not only against the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage, but also against the larger infrastrucure of terrorism on its territory.

"I also conveyed to Gilani that sustained, effective and credible action has to be taken not only against the pertpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, but also shut down the operations of terrorist groups to prevent future attacks," Manmohan Singh said in a prepared statement he read out in the Lok Sabha within hours of his return.

Manmohan Singh returned here Friday morning after a hectic five-day visit to France and Egypt. He was speaking about his meeting with Gilani at Sharm el-Sheikh Thursday.

Manmohan Singh said he conveyed to the Pakistani leader "strongest sentiments of people of India" on terrorism, and specially the Mumbai attacks."

A joint statement at the end of the meeting was seen as delinking terorrism from resumption of the 'composite dialogue' process, an interpretation that was denied by the prime minister but was nevertheless slammed by critics and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here as "capitulation" to Pakistan over the issue of terrorism.

The BJP staged a walkout in protest against Manmohan Singh's statement, saying it allegedly compromised India's position on the sensitive issue of cross-border terrorism.

Last updated on Jul 17^th, 2009 at 15:51 pm IST--IANS