Take 'menace' by horn, Pranab tells Pakistan

Pakistani hockey team officials and players place flowers to pay tribute to the victims at the site of the deadly ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore yesterday.Photo: AFP

India yesterday repeated that Pakistan must crack down on terror camps in its territory and asked the world community to address what it described as the “biggest menace” today.
“I request the Pakistani authorities not to divert the attention of the international community, but to take courage in both hands and dismantle the terrorism infrastructure and take stiff measures against the perpetrators. Only then will such issues be adequately addressed,” foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
India expressed shock at the audacious attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, and said terrorism based in Pakistan was a grave threat to the entire world.
“The terrorism infrastructure facilities available in Pakistan must be completely dismantled and the perpetrators (of the attacks) brought to justice, otherwise perpetration of these types of incidents will take place,” he added.
Mukherjee also said the international community would have to address the problem of terrorism. “Terrorism is taking place in different parts of the world. Terrorism is the biggest menace in the post-World War II era and should be tackled,” he said.
India minced no words in pointing out that terrorism emanating from Pakistan was a threat to the whole world.
“Terrorism based in Pakistan is a grave threat to the entire world. It is in Pakistan's own interest to take prompt, meaningful and decisive steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure once and for all,” foreign ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said.
Sources said this was yet another incident that proved that Pakistan was a hotbed of terrorism.
Mukherjee recalled that India had pulled out of its tour of Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks -- Lanka decided to send its team to fill the gap.
“It was not a pleasant decision (to cancel the tour) but we were constrained to take it because the security situation in Pakistan was not safe,” the minister said, calling on Islamabad to “take strict measures” against those responsible.
Home minister P Chidambaram condemned the attack and said: “The security for the Sri Lankan cricket team was hopelessly inadequate.”
Minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma, in turn, said the attack "underscores the enormity of the threat" that emerges from terrorism centred in Pakistan. He noted that India had been insisting on dismantling the terror infrastructure in Pakistan and this attack has once again highlighted the need to do so.