India, on Thursday, said that it has handed over all necessary evidences to Pakistan that prove the country’s strong connection with the terrorists who attacked Pathankot air base that killed seven Indian soldiers.
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“China welcomes all measures conducive to improving the Pakistan-India relationship and supports Pakistan and India in beefing up anti-terrorism cooperation”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing.
The meeting came as India said it is waiting for “prompt and decisive action” as promised by Sharif to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a telephone call on Tuesday.
A senior Pakistani official said India provided intelligence that included telephone numbers, call intercepts, and locations where they believe the attackers or their handlers were.
Shinde said the National Democratic Alliance government should send a clear signal to Pakistan that terrorist attacks would not be tolerated. “We have extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan, but we will not countenance cross-border terrorist attacks”, Swarup said.
Responding to a poser on whether India is consistent with its policy that terror and talks can’t go together, Swarup said New Delhi has repeatedly emphasized that there must be talks on terror. Mr Shinde said the release of the three terrorists later proved to be fatal for the country.
“Right now for us, the immediate priority is there was a conversation between our Prime Minister and his Pakistani counterpart”.
“Specific and actionable information in this regard has been provided to Pakistan”, read an official statement.
Rahul Roy Chaudhury of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, too, believes that recent attacks on Pathankot air base and the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif could not have been a surprise to the Indian security establishment.
Meanwhile, British political experts have opined that Prime Minister Modi’s Afghanistan-Pakistan diplomacy of December 2015 has rattled Pakistan’s military-intelligence complex.
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According to earlier reports, India wanted the the NSAs of the two countries to meet before Foreign Secretary-level talks are held. “We now await that”, he added.
