NEWS

3/4th of terror plots originate in Pak: UK PM

By Rezaul H Laskar in Islamabad
December 14, 2008 20:31 IST

In a blunt message to Islamabad in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, British Premier Gordon Brown said on Sunday  that "time has come for action" against terrorists operating from the soil of this country as he revealed that the 3/4th of the terror plots investigated by the UK had links to al-Qaeda and Pakistan.
    
Making a visit to Islamabad shortly after an unscheduled trip to India, Brown, who met President Asif Ali Zardari, also offered a comprehensive pact to Pakistan for controlling terrorism and extremism.
    
Britain has asked both India and Pakistan to question suspects arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks, Brown
said at a joint press conference with Zardari.
    
The British Premier, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi, said Zardari has assured him of taking further
action to clamp down on terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.
    
"Time has come for action,

not words," Brown said, adding that the action needed to be taken because what happened in the "mountains" of Afghanistan and Pakistan affected the cities of Britain.
    
He said that the 3/4th of the terror plots investigated by the UK had links to al-Qaeda and Pakistan.
    
Earlier, Brown said in New Delhi that the outrageous attacks in Mumbai were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba and made it clear that Islamabad will have a "great deal to answer for"Zardari denied that Pakistan was appeasing India by
cracking down on terrorists and said his country was committed to fighting the menace anywhere in the world.
    
He said he was the personal victim of terrorism, referring to the assassination of his wife, former Premier Benazir Bhutto, in December last year in a gun-and-suicide attack.
    
The Pakistan President said the Mumbai terror attacks presented an opportunity for Pakistan to work with India to
fight the scourge.

Rezaul H Laskar in Islamabad

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