US Senator John Kerry visited India and Pakistan on Monday and put fresh pressure on Islamabad over the Mumbai attacks, saying the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency must be brought under control.Picked right up on that, didn't he? Not much gets by JFK!
Ahead of talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Kerry said Pakistan's ISI must stop operating independently of the government and end its links with militant groups.
"We would like to see an ISI that is reforming and brought completely under civilian control," Kerry told the Indian Express.
Kerry said the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) group was set up by the ISI to fight Indian rule in Kashmir. "But they didn't know that the LT would graduate into an enterprise of its own."
Kerry said the ISI was not linked to Mumbai attacks "unless at some lower level".
Legal action: After talks with Indian leaders, Kerry said there was "strong evidence" that the Mumbai gunmen came from Pakistan and urged Islamabad to take legal action against the LT.
"I think it is imperative for the LT to be taken on, the top leaders and anybody who is implicated in this attack needs to be properly prosecuted. It seems to me that is the real measure and the test here," he said.
Zardari: In a meeting later on Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari told Kerry Pakistan had extended complete co-operation to India and assured him Pakistan would not let anyone use its territory to carry out attacks against any country.