Click to play videoNew Delhi: Ahead of a crucial address to more than 150 India missions overseas, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee virtually accused Islamabad of lying.
The perpetrators of the terror attacks in Mumbai are still at large. The war of words between India and Pakistan has grown louder. Not only India, the US too is building up diplomatic pressure on the nation that refuses to act tough on the terror managers on its soil.
Ahead of a crucial address to the heads of more than 150 India missions overseas, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee virtually accused Islamabad of lying, using the example of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar. He also hinted at wielding the big stick.
"We have the evidences, including interceptions. Please pass on those evidences and take action," said Pranab Mukherjee.
There were more strong words coming from other quarters as well. None other than UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at an election rally in Jammu's Ranbir Singh Pura constituency gave tough warnings to 'neighbours who allow terror to spring' from their soils.
"Pakistan is going on shifting its stand and we are capable of giving Pakistan a firm reply," said UPA chief Sonia Gandhi in a rally in Jammu.
A similar message was going out from Washington. Pakistani newspapers quoted senior US officials as telling Pakistan's National Security Adviser General Durrani that Pakistan's position on the Mumbai attacks was shifty and needed correction.
According to the reports, General Durrai was told that this is not 2002 and Pakistan cannot do what President Pervez Musharraf did after 9/11. In the past, Pakistan has swept everything under the carpet while the problems were allowed to fester. No more will that do, the US warns.
But the establishment in Pakistan continued to dig its heels in.
"We don't want war, we want peace. But if a war is imposed upon us, we are not only capable of hitting back, but also retain the moral right to do so," said Pakistan's Foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Quereshi.
India is reaching out to other influential sections in the Pakistani polity, notably the former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Shaif whom Indian high commissioner Satyabrata Pal met. But at this point there's no indication that Islamabad is willing to move from its stated position.
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