British PM visits Pakistan

14 Dec 2008, 8:10 pm   -   Source: AAP
Share This

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for talks aimed at calming tensions with India.

RELATED

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for talks aimed at calming tensions with India as Islamabad accused its neighbour of violating its airspace, drawing a swift denial.

Brown travelled here from New Delhi, where he earlier held talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on security in the wake of the devastating attacks on Mumbai, which New Delhi has blamed on "elements" in Pakistan.

After talks with Singh, Brown backed India's accusations that the Pakistan-based militant group Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) was behind the attacks that left 172 dead including nine of the gunmen.

"We know that the group responsible is LeT and they have a great deal to answer for," he said before meeting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari here.

"I will talk to the president of Pakistan and I will explain the concerns that the Indian people have about what has happened."

At least one British national died in last month's attacks on India's financial centre, and a government source said on Sunday that Britain may ask to question "anyone who is suspected" in Pakistan of involvement in the siege.

The source, who requested anonymity, also said British police may wish to interview Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman - the lone surviving gunman, a Pakistani national, who is being held in India.

Brown's visit comes just hours after Pakistan said Indian jets made an "inadvertent" intrusion into its airspace, a claim which threatened to further harm ties between the nuclear-armed South Asian states.

Pakistan's air force said Indian jets had on Saturday flown over the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir and the eastern city of Lahore, both places where Lashkar-e-Taiba is active.

The government in Islamabad said it had confirmed the incident with India.

"We contacted the Indian air force and they said the violation was inadvertent. We don't want to escalate the situation," Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.

But a spokesman for India's air force denied the accusation.

"There has not been any airspace violation as has been alleged," Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani told AFP.

Relations between India and Pakistan have plummeted in the wake of the devastating Mumbai assault. Gunmen ran riot in the city, leading to a 60-hour siege in which hundreds of terrified locals and tourists were caught up.

India last week called Pakistan the "epicentre" of terrorism and demanded it do more to crack down on militant groups on its soil, but ruled out military action.

Pakistan has arrested key leaders of LeT and shut down a charity accused of being a front for the group, freezing its assets and detaining dozens of members.

But it says it will not hand over any suspects to India, saying New Delhi has not yet provided any evidence implicating Pakistanis in the attacks.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain, and Brown's visit is part of a concerted international effort to ease the pressure between the two nations.

Britain has previously urged India and Pakistan, whose long-running dispute over divided Kashmir is a fault line of geopolitical significance, to work together in the wake of the devastation.

Brown's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said earlier this month that "violent extremism is a threat to the very integrity of both of those countries."

Nearly 1,500 people have died in bomb blasts, most of them suicide attacks, since the Pakistani Taliban launched a terror campaign after the deadly military raid on the al-Qaeda linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube