Islamabad: Pakistan's assertion that there is no terrorist infrastructure on its soil will be taken with "a very big pinch of salt" and foot-dragging on the probe into involvement of Pakistani elements in the Mumbai attacks will result in the country being "deemed guilty until proven innocent", the media said on Saturday.

Referring to the Foreign Office spokesmans remarks on Thursday that Pakistan has no terrorist infrastructure on its soil, The News daily said that one would have to question whether the tribal areas, specifically the North and South Waziristan Agencies and the Northern Areas "are part of Pakistan or not".

In an editorial titled "Denying the obvious", the daily said several senior officers, including former president Pervez Musharraf, had publicly said since the 9/11 attacks there were facilities in the country "where those fighting the state of Pakistan and committing terrorist acts receive training and other assistance".

Members of the government and extremists themselves have said "there exist even some places where suicide bombers are produced, through a regimen of indoctrination and training in the use of weapons, suicide vests and so on", the influential paper said.

"The remarks by a Foreign Office spokesman on January 1 that Pakistan has no terrorist infrastructure on its soil are going to be taken with a very big pinch of salt by even many Pakistanis," the editorial stated.

In it's editorial titled Taking stock, the Dawn daily said the government should issue a "progress report" on its own probe into the Mumbai attacks following reports in the media that Lashker-e-Toiba operative Zarar Shah had confessed to his involvement in the carnage. "Otherwise Islamabad will not be in a position to counter criticism that facts are being withheld and we will continue to be deemed guilty until proven innocent," the Dawn cautioned.

Independent media reports have "strongly suggested" that terrorist camps also exist in parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, "where proxies sent to India to fight the jihad were trained".

"Perhaps, these camps may have closed down or more likely assumed a lower profile. However, following the Mumbai attacks and India's accusation against the Lashker-e-Taiba and the Jamaat-ud-Dawah a facility outside Muzaffarabad was closed down," it said.

The News also questioned where the "suicide bombings and other instances of terrorism" that hit Pakistan in the past two years had originated from. It also pointed out that the Taliban had a "stranglehold" over large parts of the tribal areas and the Swat valley.

"Are the extremists, who seem to be clearly in control in such areas and to whom most if not all acts of terrorism inside Pakistan are traced to, foreign aliens who train in other countries and are teleported to Pakistani soil to carry out their nefarious activities?" it asked.

Dawn newspaper pointed out that this media report had "not been denied at the highest levels in Islamabad". It added: "Foot-dragging will get us nowhere, and we need to explain what headway, if any, has been made in our own investigations... A progress report, though, is the need of the hour.

Pakistan's intelligence resources could verify the "authenticity or otherwise" of intercepts of phone conversations between LeT commanders and militants holed up in a hotel in Mumbai.

"The sooner this is done, and the facts placed before the nation and the world, the better," it said.

If any LeT commander had "admitted to his role in the carnage, that confession too should be acknowledged".

The editorial in the Dawn said: "There will be no loss of face if it turns out that Pakistani's were among the militants who attacked Mumbai. Egged on by India, much of the world believes that anyway.

"We need to act decisively against militants and terrorists operating from Pakistani soil, not on account of pressure exerted by India or America but because therein lies our own salvation. The enemy within is a far greater threat than any external foe."

The News also cautioned that the remarks about terrorist infrastructure not existing on Pakistan's soil would "do nothing but undermine the already low credibility that the government (or at least sections of it) has on such matters.

"The Foreign Office statement may have been made for domestic consumption but it should remember that most Pakistanis and certainly the rest of the world looking and scrutinizing our every move are not fools," it said.

Source : Central