Talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will take place as planned at the end of July despite the triple blasts in Mumbai, the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. India has moved to curb speculation about who was behind Wednesday’s bombings, and no group has claimed responsibility, but similar incidents in the past have led to a spike in tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
New Delhi has repeatedly accused the Pakistan military and intelligence services of aiding militant groups which carry out attacks on Indian soil.“The talks are proceeding as scheduled,” foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told AFP. “There has been a heinous terrorist attack on Mumbai and we have duly noted the message of condolence from the president and prime minister of Pakistan.”
A date has yet to be finalised for the talks in New Delhi between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, but Prakash said it would be in the last week of July. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged the authorities would “relentlessly pursue” those who carried out a string of blasts in Mumbai which left 17 dead and more than 130 injured.
Singh said he understood the “shock and outrage of the people” of Mumbai over Wednesday’s bombings, which marked the deadliest attack in the city since the 2008 siege by Islamist militants in which 166 people died. Home Minister P Chidambaram refused to speculate about the group behind the coordinated attacks at rush-hour on Wednesday in India’s commercial hub, saying authorities had received no prior warning or claim of responsibility.
“All groups hostile to India are on the radar. We are not ruling out anything, we are not ruling in anything. We are looking at everyone,” he told reporters after visiting the scene of the blasts. The bombs made of ammonium nitrate – an ingredient for fertiliser commonly used in improvised devices – went off within 15 minutes of each other in two crowded commercial areas of south Mumbai and a central residential district.
“I think they chose the places because of the density of the population and the very congested nature of these areas,” Chidambaram said. “They chose places where even a low-intensity blast could have a great impact.” Asked why the commercial and entertainment capital of India had again been hit, the minister replied that all cities in the emerging Asian nation were vulnerable to attacks.
“We live in the most troubled neighbourhood in the world. Pakistan-Afghanistan are the epicentre of terror,” he said.
