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Pak must fully cooperate with India: UN

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Agencies

Posted: Feb 05, 2009 at 1036 hrs IST
Gilani ban

Islamabad Pakistan must cooperate with India and fully investigate November's militant attacks in Mumbai, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.

India is expected to share details of the Mumbai terror attacks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday when he meets External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and urge him to press Pakistan to cooperate.

The Indian side is expected to apprise Ban about how heavily-armed 10 Pakistani terrorists came via sea to Mumbai and unleashed terror in the financial capital for three days from November 26, 2008.

Ban, who will be here for a day, is expected to be informed about the evidence India has with regard to Pakistani linkages to the attacks, sources said.

New Delhi is likely to urge the UN chief to press Pakistan to cooperate in tracking down the culprits so that they could be brought to justice.

Ban and Mukherjee are also expected to deliberate on the situation in the region, particularly Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Besides Mukherjee, Ban will also meet UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. A meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is recuperating after bypass surgery, is not finalised yet.

The UN Secretary General is visiting India primarily for the Sustainable Development Summit to be held here on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ban, in Pakistan after a stop in Afghanistan, also announced the setting up of a UN inquiry into the December, 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained since militants killed 179 people in the attacks in India's commercial capital. India has put dialogue on hold.

Ban said the United Nations wanted India and Pakistan to resume dialogue and resolve outstanding disputes peacefully.

"(Pakistan) must have a full investigation into this issue and fully cooperate with the Indian government," Ban told a news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

India blamed the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group for the attacks and said there must have been support from Pakistani security agencies.

Pakistan has denied any involvement by state agencies and says it is investigating a dossier of information from India.

Gilani said last month that Pakistan would release details of its investigation "very soon".

A committee of the UN Security Council in December added four leaders of the LeT to a list of people and groups facing sanctions for ties to al Qaeda or the Taliban.

The sanctions also covered what the committee said was a front for the LeT, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).

LOOKS INTO BHUTTO KILLING

Pakistan has said it would fulfil its "international obligations" and detained scores of members of the groups, including two of four leaders singled out by the UN Security Council committee. Pakistani officials have not commented on the whereabouts of two other leaders the committee identified.

Authorities have shut five militant training camps and also closed offices of the JuD and frozen its assets. The group says it is a charity and has appealed against the UN listing.

Asked if he thought Pakistan was complying with the UN sanctions, Ban, who is also due to visit India, commended a proposed change to Pakistani law that would enable authorities to prosecute citizens who commit crimes outside the country.

Ban later met Bhutto's widower, President Asif Ali Zaradri, and told him the United Nations had agreed to a government request for a UN commission of inquiry into Bhutto's killing in a suicide attack in December 2007.

"I intend to establish very shortly an independent commission of inquiry headed by a very distinguished person who I'm going to nominate in a very short period of time," Ban said.

Earlier investigations by Pakistan's previous government and the US Central Intelligence Agency accused an al Qaeda-linked militant of killing Bhutto, a staunch supporter of the US-led campaign against Islamist militancy.

Some of Bhutto's aides expressed dissatisfaction over those investigations.

Ban also urged Pakistan to do all it could to recover a senior UN refugee agency official who was kidnapped in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday.

US citizen John Solecki, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Quetta, was grabbed by gunmen who intercepted his vehicle and shot dead his driver.

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Change in Indian politics a MUST by V Siva on 07 Feb 2009

Like Obama in the US, Indians must choose young, vibrant and elite politicians to eliminate high corruption and incompetent decisions by the old guard. Current politicians in India only help to disintigrate the country sooner than later. Kashmir and Tamil Nadu will demand for separation as the Centre is totally incompetent in their decisions and continue to commit War Crimes against Kashmiris and helping Sri Lanka govt to commit crimes against Tamils. Tamil Nadu, the land of famous king Raja Raja Cholan must separate from this mockery politics and be independent for their people and prosperity.

UN blah-blah by Hero Vaz on 05 Feb 2009

Does anyone listen to the UN? In fact ,what is united about the UN? From 'UNO' it should be renamed simply 'Organisation of Nations for Blah-Blah'.

India is taken for a ride: by Tejasvi on 05 Feb 2009

I would attribute this to weakness of current Congress government which is impotent.Isn't it the govt's job to find the truth and act?

Ban - Pakistan by Avinash Baranwal on 05 Feb 2009

When India could not do any thing...Ban wont be able to do...He can't do anything for his own country...how come he will do for us??? and don;t we know the UN chief is just a puppet of US? It is good if India keep on tailing behind US as it is doing now. Ofcourse many hate it.

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