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NEW DELHI : India's premier reassured parliament on Friday that there would be no resumption of formal peace talks with Pakistan until Islamabad brings those behind last year's Mumbai's attacks to justice.
"The starting point of any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan is a fulfillment of their commitment... not to allow their territory to be used in any manner for terrorist activities against India," Manmohan Singh told parliament.
"Sustained effective and credible action needs to be taken not only to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, but also to shut down the operation of terrorist groups so as to prevent any future attacks," he said.
Despite his assurances that the pre-conditions set by New Delhi for a formal resumption of talks remained in force, the immediate response of opposition MPs was a mass walkout.
The opposition had demanded that Singh clarify a joint statement he had issued the day before with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani which stated that action on terrorism "should not be linked" to peace talks.
Sections of the Indian media had labelled the statement a major climbdown, with The Mail Today running the frontpage headline "PM Sells Out to Pak".
The main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said it remained "surprised" and "disappointed" by the apparent policy shift contained in the joint statement.
"We have conceded," said opposition leader L.K. Advani, before leading the BJP walkout from the chamber.
The peace process between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours was put on hold following the November 2008 attacks on India's financial and entertainment capital, in which 166 people died.
New Delhi has blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) and said it has "overwhelming evidence" that "official agencies" in Pakistan were involved in plotting and carrying out the 60-hour siege.
Singh told members of parliament that Gilani had assured him that Pakistan would "do everything in its power" to prosecute those responsible.
- AFP /ls
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