Rice denies 48-Hour Deadline For Pakistan To Take Action

Geo.tv

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that Pakistan must act quickly to arrest suspects linked to the deadly attacks in India to help ensure there are no follow-on assaults.

Interviewed on a foreign TV channel, Rice said she stressed during her visit to Pakistan last week how important it was for Islamabad to act quickly but denied there was a 48-hour deadline to take action.

"The important thing is that Pakistan act and that these people are brought to justice and that any information that they may have is put to use in making sure follow-on attacks don't happen," Rice said.

Rice echoed remarks from Pakistan's foreign office denying Islamabad had agreed to a 48-hour timetable to take action against Pakistanis accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

The Washington Post reported that Pakistan had agreed to a deadline imposed by the United States and India to arrest three people and formulate a plan to take action against a militant group accused of involvement in the attacks.

"No. There's not a timetable involved here," the US top diplomat said.

"Obviously, this is counterterrorism work. It's hard work. And it's not as if these people are sitting on the surface," she said, adding that Pakistani leaders "understood their responsibilities and now we're waiting."

The 60-hour Mumbai siege by Islamic militants has badly affected relations between India and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors who have fought three wars since independence from Britain.

India says all 10 gunmen involved in the assault came from Pakistan, and has handed Islamabad a list of 20 terror suspects, with demands for their arrest and extradition.

Suspicion over the recent Mumbai carnage, which left 172 dead, has fallen on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group that has fought Indian rule in Kashmir and was blamed for a 2001 attack on the New Delhi parliament.

Before visiting Pakistan, Rice made a solidarity visit to India.

News via