Islamabad, Aug 27: Pakistan today rejected allegations of its involvement in the gruesome Mumbai car bomb blasts and also said that 19 suspects wanted by India for various terrorism charges were not being harboured by it. "India is a big country, and instead of blaming Pakistan it should investigate the matter, and before investigation should not pre-judge its outcome," Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said reacting to allegations made by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani in Mumbai yesterday. "This is not the occasion to inflame passion and hurl baseless accusations," he told reporters in Lahore, adding "We should avoid the conditioned reflex of blaming each other for any incident that may happen in our countries". He said Pakistan rejected allegations of any involvement in the twin bomb blasts and expressed the hope that the current moves toward normalisation would remain unaffected by this tragedy, according to official app news agency. To a question, Kasuri did not rule out the possibility of involvement of some elements opposed to the thawing in Indo-Pak relations in the blasts.


On India's demand that Pakistan should hand over 19 suspects, Kasuri said it has been made clear that these suspects were not on Pakistan soil and India has not provided any evidence about the presence of these suspects.


Pakistan will not hesitate to hand over them to India if they were found to be in the country, he was quoted as saying by Geo TV.


Bureau Report