Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called on President Asif Ali Zardari here Tuesday, a day after India handed over evidence of the involvement of this country in the Mumbai terror attacks.

"Both leaders discussed recent political developments, India-Pakistan tension and steps taken by Pakistan to de-escalate the situation, situation in tribal areas and others matters of national and regional interests," Geo TV reported.

The meeting came on the day Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh squarely blamed Pakistan for the Nov 26-29 Mumbai attacks, terming the government in Islamabad "fragile" and "irresponsible" and saying it had "utilised" terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India.

"The governments in some of our neighbouring countries are very fragile in nature. The more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion. Pakistan's responses to our various demarches on terrorist attacks is an example," said Manmohan Singh while addressing a meeting of chief ministers here on internal security.

This is the first time the prime minister has explicitly singled out Pakistan's role in the 26/11 attacks and detailed how it continued to harbour terror groups that were antagonistic to India.

His statement comes close on the heels of Home Minister P. Chidambaram categorically rejecting the Pakistani theory that the people behind the Mumbai attacks were non-state actors.

 

Source : IANS