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Pakistan must do more on terrorism: Singh

Jammu and Kashmir police officers inspect a 7kg improvised explosive device at a police station in Jammu, India, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

Pakistan is not doing enough to control militant groups based on its territory, a failure that is harming relations with India, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday.

This was not the first time that Singh, who was speaking to reporters on board his plane en route to Brazil, had made remarks to this extent about Pakistan's role.

The prime minister is also due to travel to Havana, Cuba, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of a Nonaligned Movement meeting.

"This terrorism will surely act as a dampener," Singh said.

"I have said more than once that I can't carry the Indian public opinion with me if terrorist acts continue to plague our polity."

India was hit by a wave of bombings over the last year, which the government has blamed on Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant groups.

"Our worry has been that [the] Pakistan[i] government has not done enough to control these elements," Singh said.

Over the past half-century, India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of training and funding Islamic militants fighting in Kashmir.

A predominantly Muslim Himalayan region, Kashmir is divided between the two countries and is claimed by both.

Pakistan denies the charge that it funds and trains terrorist groups.

The Pakistani government has nevertheless acknowledged over the years that it offers the Kashmiri rebels and organizations moral and political support.

More than a dozen militant groups -- most of them based in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir -- are demanding Kashmiri independence from Hindu-majority India.

Other elements within Kashmir seek its merging with Muslim-dominated Pakistan.

Singh said Pakistan's support of the militants was causing a lack of trust between the two nuclear-armed countries.

India and Pakistan embarked on a peace process in 2004 aimed at ending decades of political hostility.

Further talks were suspended by India after the Mumbai train bombings in June that killed more than 200 people.

Since gaining independence from the British in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars against each other, including two over the disputed Kashmir territory.
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