Pak PM pledges action on anti-India groups

Yousuf Raza Gilani said he needed more evidence from India about the LeT being behind the 26/11 attacks.

Pakistan’s prime minister said he would not tolerate extremists using his country as a base to attack India but said he needed more evidence about a group blamed in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani confirmed that President Barack Obama raised the issue of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba in a meeting yesterday,relaying concerns from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“We don’t want our soil used against any country and neither would we allow somebody else’s soil to be used against Pakistan,” Gilani told a roundtable with reporters on a visit to Washington.

Story continues below this ad

Gilani said that Pakistan has already banned some extremist groups and frozen their bank accounts.

He said that Pakistan was seeking more evidence from India against Lashkar-e-Toiba and that the courts were examining the group,which is suspected in the 2008 siege of Mumbai that left 166 people dead.

“If we have more effective evidence,certainly they will be brought to justice,” Gilani said.

Gilani and Singh are both in Washington for a major summit on improving nuclear security.

Story continues below this ad

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that Singh in his meeting with Obama urged him to put pressure on Pakistan to rein in Lashkar-e-Toiba,which means the “Army of the Pure” and is virulently opposed to India.