Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has said Pakistani spy agency ISI was linked to planners behind the Mumbai attack,the first time the government has directly named the organisation over the terror strikes. "The perpetrators planned,trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan,and the organisers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI," Menon said in a speech in Paris. "We,in India,are next to the epicentre of international terrorism in Pakistan." The speech was delivered at a foreign affairs conference at the Institute Francais des Relations Internationales on Wednesday but was released to the media on Thursday by the Ministry of External Affairs. Describing the 'organisers' of Mumbai and Kabul embassy attacks as 'clients and creations' of ISI,Menon said those behind the carnages are known to prepare for strikes across the world and cautioned against any "compromise" with such forces. He also indicated India's opposition to the sale of arms to Pakistan by the US and others in the name of fight against terrorism and extremism,saying such supplies were 'totally unrelated' to the objective meant for and rather act as 'whisky to an alcoholic,a drug reinforcing an addiction'. India has 'directly suffered the consequences of linkages and relationships among terrorist organisations,their support structures,official sponsors and funding mechanisms,which transcend national borders but operate within them,' he said in a clear reference to Pakistan. "Any compromise with such forces,howsoever,pragmatic or opportune it might appear momentarily,only encourages them." He said two months after the Mumbai attacks and one month after India presented a 'dossier of evidence' linking the attacks to elements in Pakistan,"We still await a response from the Pakistani authorities,and prevarication continues". Describing the 'polity beside us' as 'fragile and unfinished',Menon said,"there is much that the international community can do to help."
