'Wounds of 26/11 have not healed as yet': Nirupama Rao

Apr 06, 2011 |

New Delhi

Tags:

Nirupama Rao

Though it has re-engaged with Pakistan on a wide range of issues that need to be addressed, India has said the wounds of Mumbai terror attack have not healed as yet and stressed on Islamabad taking with "utmost seriousness" its request for voice samples of the 26/11 accused.

"Yes and no. I think my answer would bridge both these concepts. The wounds of 26/11 have not healed as yet. I think we would do wrong to the people who lost their lives and the families that continue to grieve as a result of what happened so tragically in Mumbai, if we were to say that 26/11 is behind us," foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said.

She was asked if the deep wounds of 26/11 have healed or is it India's position that the time has come to move on.

"There is an ongoing trial in Pakistan; there are questions still to be answered; there is evidence to be scrutinised; there is need for agencies in both countries to cooperate better in this regard. The home secretary of India and the interior secretary of Pakistan have just had a good meeting, a positive meeting. So, we are trying to build on that.

"Obviously the wounds of 26/11 will not heal easily. I think there is sentiment in this country in India and there is grief still which has not died. Let me put it this way. Our grief cannot die when it comes to 26/11," she told Karan Thapar in an interview for CNBC.

"The yes side is that. We have to engage with each other across a wide range of issues that need to be addressed," Rao said.

On India's request for voice samples of the 26/11 accused, the foreign secretary said, "We do not want them to fob us off obviously on this. We are very serious about this matter.

"When the home secretary met his counterpart this was reiterated. And as you know, when our home minister was in Pakistan last June and when he spoke to Rahman Mallik this point was emphasised. So, we would like the Pakistanis to treat this with the utmost seriousness."

India's request for voice samples has already been turned down by a lower court in Pakistan and the government there is now appealing to a higher court.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/66095" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-6e1f6ef10194daa38c5c31a75d335e30" value="form-6e1f6ef10194daa38c5c31a75d335e30" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80879937" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>