New Delhi: India reacted strongly on Saturday to Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Quershi's allegations that New Delhi was not interested in talks and was myopic in its approach.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor blamed Pakistan of showing lack of vigour in the prosecutions of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused.
"Pakistan doesn't have political will to punish Hafiz Saeed (Lashkar-e-Toiba chief). Their actions don't match their words. If they need more evidence against Saeed, there is evidence against him in Pakistan. They should investigate the case," said Tharoor.
Accusing Pakistan of being soft of terror Tharoor said that talks between the two countries will resume only after Islamabad acts against the groups and individuals involved in terror activities.
"A peace dialogue is not possible with a gun pointed at India's head. When Pakistan starts to deliver on terrorism, we will approach Parliament to make a case for talks," he said.
When asked about Lashkar activist David Coleman Headley and his connections with the Pakistani Prime Minister's Office, Tharoor said merely knowing a person cannot be a reason to implicate someone.
"I am not one who believes in guilt by association. You may be one kind of person and your cousin or brother may be another kind of person. I don't think the mere presence of a relative is enough to implicate the Prime Minister's Office," he said.
Earlier, Qureshi in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN had ruled out any dialogue with India at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain.
Qureshi said that Indo-Pak peace process could continue only if India reciprocated and asked India not to be myopic. he also added that even though Pakistan had enough evidence to convict most of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks accused but the evidence against Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed is not adequate.
Criticising India Qureshi said that there had to be real progress in bilateral talks.
"I have always welcomed a meeting. But it has to be a meaningful meeting. It has to be a dialogue which is result oriented. We have had engagements; we met on sidelines in New York. I shared with him (SM Krishna) my vision of the future, my roadmap of engagement for the future. They (Indian government) have to respond, they have failed to respond so far. Pakistan is interested in an engagement which is meaningful, result oriented. We are no longer interested in a photo opportunity," he had said.
(With inputs from Paarull)
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