Obama Urges ‘Serious’ Action against Pakistan Extremists

The message to Islamabad came in a joint statement on counter terrorism which was issued jointly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande led their respective sides in the delegation-level talks here. Several other suspects were arrested and authorities closed down a number of JeM-run madrassas (seminaries) in different cities. The JeM chief’s brother Mufti Abdul Rehman Rauf was also detained, officials said on Saturday.

Talking about the Pathankot attack in India, Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan doesn’t believe in interfering in the affairs of any country.

The daily was critical of the action – or the lack of it – by Islamabad against the JeM since it was accused by India of carrying out an audacious terror attack on the Indian Air Force station on January 2. While neutralising the attack, seven security personnel lost their lives.

“We could have hidden it or forgotten it but we asserted that we have received the evidences”, Sharif said on a day when US President Barack Obama termed the Pathankot terror strike as “another example of the inexcusable terrorism that India has endured for too long”.

He said Pakistan could not handover its citizens to India or any other country for investigations.

Hollande said India and France were ‘united in their determination to act together against terrorism’.

Dhulipala, author of the critically acclaimed “Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India” (2015), argued that Pakistan sees itself on the way to its pre-eminence in the Islamic world based on its possession of nuclear weapons, and this was also becoming a “driver for Pakistani politics”.

The foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India are expected to meet next month and the two sides are in touch for finalising the new dates amid some “forward movement”, a senior Pakistani official said.

“We will fulfil this responsibility”, he told reporters in London.

“In principle, we have welcomed the decision of Pakistan government to consider sending a SIT team…

He said there had been no further movement from Pakistan on its proposal to send an investigation team to India to probe the attack.

Not stopping there, he even called the attack, “a continuation of their activity, targeting Indian military installations” than a plot to disrupt India-Pakistan talks. The worldwide community has also appreciated the meeting between the premiers of both countries and stressed to resolve all matters by using the option of dialogue.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Sunday said the National Action Plan (NAP) against extremism and terrorism was working, although its pace may be slow.