ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, 20 January — Pakistan said yesterday it has its own list of terrorist suspects it wants extradited from India as the two countries exchanged heavy fire along their border. Pakistan’s foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, said at a joint news conference with visiting Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley in Islamabad that the Pakistani list would be handed over to New Delhi "in the course of time.
The minister was replying to a question about his country’s response to a demand by India to hand over 20 alleged terrorists. He said Pakistan would act "in accordance with the merits" of information provided by India in deciding what to do with Indian nationals on the list.
The extradition of the 20 "most wanted" — including both Indian and Pakistani nationals — is one of India’s main demands for resolving the standoff which has left the two countries poised for war.
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has ruled out sending Pakistani nationals to India, saying they would instead be tried under Pakistani law if evidence were presented against them. But he has not completely closed the door on extraditing Indian nationals providing New Delhi provides evidence of their alleged crimes. India had provided information on the 20 suspects going back as far as 1981 and Pakistan would study this very carefully, Sattar said.
"As for extradition, that is a complex legal and political issue and we shall, as the president has said, examine the cases of Indian nationals who are alleged to be in Pakistan, try to place them, study the information that is provided to us by the government of India about these people and then take further action in accordance with the merits." Asked whether Pakistan had its own list of terrorist suspects for India, he said: "We have names on our list and we will forward that list in the course of time to the government of India." "Neither country has any reason whatsoever to give protection to criminals."
Asked if Canada supported Pakistan’s suggestion of an international peacekeeping force to be sent to the divided state of Kashmir — the main issue dividing the neighbors — Manley said such a force could not be imposed. He said a peacekeeping force would only work with the agreement of both countries. India has steadfastly refused foreign intervention in the issue, saying it should be settled between New Delhi and Islamabad.
In New Delhi, Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said India’s diplomatic campaign against Pakistan would continue despite measures announced by Musharraf to suppress terrorism. Advani told a meeting of Muslim leaders that the campaign would not end unless Islamabad translated its commitment on suppression of terrorism into action.
As the war of words continued, troops of the two countries traded heavy fire across their tense border along Pakistan’s central province of Punjab. "There has been intense firing throughout the night," a witness in the Pakistani border town of Sialkot said. He said Indian forces fired mortars into the Bajwat sector about 30 km (18 miles) from Sialkot and the Pakistani forces returned fire. There was no immediate word about casualties.
