Govt projects Pak acknowledgment on 26/11 as major triumph

New Delhi, Feb 18: Government today projected Islamabad's acknowledgment of its soil being used in the Mumbai terror strikes as a major triumph and spoke of the futility of a war with Pakistan saying it would not solve the problem of terrorism.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address during which he sought to suggest that the government has achieved much in the backdrop of the "failure" of the BJP-led NDA regime after the Parliament attack.

"We did not mobilise a single soldier, we did not press the panic button, we did not lay mines on the border, but we said we expected Pakistan to fulfil its commitment," Mukherjee said in Lok Sabha.

His reference was apparently to the troop mobilisation and military exercises as part of the 'Operation Parakram' during the NDA rule after the 2001 attack on Parliament.

"We were advised why can't we retaliate like some other countries are doing. Why don't you attack Pakistan," he said, asserting that the government believed that war with Pakistan would not solve the problem of terrorism.

"Diplomacy has paid. It has not failed. ... We said that the non-state actors (terrorists) were not coming from the heaven and they (Pakistan) have admitted (it)," he said.

The motion was approved by the House after rejecting the opposition amendments. PTI