Islamabad: A week after a series of bomb blasts killed over 180 people in Mumbai, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf warned on Tuesday that any stalling in the peace process with India would play into terrorists' hands.
"We must not allow such terrorist acts to undermine the historic opportunity for lasting peace between Pakistan and India," Musharraf was quoted as saying in a news release issued by the Information Ministry.
India put off talks between foreign secretaries due this week in New Delhi to review progress in the peace process, saying the atmosphere in the wake of the blasts was not conducive.
Musharraf told the National Security Council, according to the news release, that delaying the peace "because of terrorist attacks would be tantamount to playing into the hands of the terrorists".
Although there has been no breakthrough yet in investigations into the Mumbai attacks, Indian suspicions have fallen on Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Pakistani military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.
A grieving Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke in Mumbai last Friday of Pakistan's failure to tackle terrorism, saying "terror modules" in India are being instigated and supported by elements from across the border.
Pakistan has condemned the attacks on India's financial and commercial hub and offered full cooperation with any Indian investigation, just as it did after a series of blasts killed dozens of people in New Delhi last October.
Musharraf said that instead of unsubstantiated allegations and aspersions, if the Indian side had any concrete information it should be shared with Pakistan in order for security agencies to help with the investigation.
India's reluctance to take up Musharraf's offer is probably due to suspicions that Pakistan's security apparatus has not entirely cut links with groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba.
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