Manmohan Singh genuinely wanted to develop ties with Pak: Pranab

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is more disturbed by the Mumbai attacks as he genuinely wanted to develop relations with Pakistan and had "invested much political capital" into it, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday. "Prime Minister is more disturbed than me because he genuinely wanted to build good relations with Pakistan," Mukherjee told NDTV. He said Singh had "invested much more political capital" in developing relations with Pakistan. Demanding a "demonstrable punishment" by Pakistan to perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, he questioned why Islamabad is not handing over fugitives of Indian laws, including Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar. "Nothing prevents them from handing over the perpetrators to us who have committed crime in India and have taken shelter there including Masood Azhar, who was in Indian custody," he said. Mukherjee said India had never said that Pakistan was involved in the hijacking of Indian Airlines aircraft IC-814 in 1999 as it took place in Kathmandu and the exchange took place in Afghanistan. "But how do I explain to the people of India when these persons are given heroes' welcome in Pakistan and that too is coming on TV screen and people are seeing it," he said. He said Pakistan should not have any problem in handing over any terrorist to India as that country has an Extradition Act which provides for handing over of fugitives to countries with which it has no Extradition Treaty. Mukherjee said Pakistan must dismantle infrastructure facilities, training camps and no infrastructural facilities should be made available within the territory of Pakistan or within the territory under its control.

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