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Bush, India, Pakistan agree on need to douse tensions
Crawford, Texas (AFP) Dec 31, 2008 US President George W. Bush spoke with Indian and Pakistani leaders Wednesday and agreed on the need to avoid any moves that could heighten tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Speaking separately with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Bush "urged both ... to cooperate with each other in the Mumbai attack investigation as well as on counterterrorism in general," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "All three leaders from the United States, India and Pakistan agreed that no one wanted to take any steps that unnecessarily raise tensions," he added. Relations between India and Pakistan have sharply deteriorated since the November attacks in Mumbai left 172 people dead, including nine of the 10 gunmen. India insists the gunmen were trained by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group and abetted by unnamed Pakistani agencies, and has demanded that Islamabad crack down on the group. Zardari reiterated to Bush his government's position "that it would not allow its territory to be used by non-state actors for launching attacks on other countries," his spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP. "Anybody found involved in such attacks from the soil of Pakistan will be dealt with sternly," he added. Pakistan Tuesday called for talks with India to defuse tensions, as New Delhi denied claims it had moved troops into offensive positions on the border. Officials in Islamabad said last week that Pakistani troops had been shifted from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to the eastern border with India, following intelligence that New Delhi had redeployed troops to the area. But an Indian army spokesman told AFP there had been no troop movements on its side of the frontier. Earlier Wednesday Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Pakistan was in "denial" over the Mumbai attacks and refusing to acknowledge evidence linking the gunmen to elements in Pakistan. He told reporters the Pakistani father of the sole surviving gunman had confirmed to Pakistan television that his son was involved. "If that is not evidence, then what is?" Chidambaram asked. And India's junior foreign minister, Anand Sharma, said New Delhi had supplied key evidence to Islamabad linking the attackers to groups in Pakistan. "Everyone knows who are the conspirators and from where they came. We have given enough evidence," Sharma said in the Indian city of Chandigarh. "Evidence is not only with India but also with the investigating agencies of the United States and Britain (and) instead of being in a denial mode, Pakistan should take effective steps to bring those responsible to justice," he said. burs-pst/jkb Share This Article With Planet Earth
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