PM Narendra Modi genuine in his desire to have good relations with Pakistan: Ajit Doval

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Delhi: Delhi: National Security Adviser AK Doval reportedly told a delegation of five former Pakistan High Commissioners that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was genuine in his desire to have good relations with Pakistan, as per a media report.

India Today Group quoted sources as saying that NSA had said that efforts being made were not "for posturing or to score diplomatic points". 

On the other hand, he is said to have expressed his satisfaction over Pakistan's five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) team's visit and intent in April to collect evidence against those accused of carrying out Pathankot terror attack.

The report quoted sources as saying that in an informal conversation with former Pakistan High Commissioners at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday, Doval said, "I was quite satisfied with the interest the JIT showed and also the assurances they gave us on the basis of the evidence that we provided them that they would be able to take effective action against culprits."

At the same time, Doval made it clear to former high commissioners that "Pakistan has to deliver by controlling terrorists and it has to stop bleeding India. It has to abandon the path it had been following in the past."

As per the report, Doval explained that basic doctrine of any security mechanism by a country was to ensure that there is a deterrence against those who are trying to harm the country.

He supposedly added that such a doctrine was only meant "to warn the offending country that there will be a cost and a retaliation", as per the report.

Meanwhile, on April 28, government had told told the Rajya Sabha that Pakistan had been clearly told that it should allow an Indian probe team to visit that country in connection with Pathankot terror attack as reciprocity was the principle on which Pakistan's JIT was allowed to visit here.

Minister of State for External Affairs Gen VK Singh had also insisted that the meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries here recently was "no formal talks".

Acknowledging that the Pathankot attack has served to stress once again the centrality of India's concerns regarding cross-border terrorism in ties with Pakistan, the former Army Chief-turned-minister, had however, defended the bilateral engagements saying it was for the first time in the history that country had showed a "cooperative attitude" after a terror attack.

(With Agency inputs)