PM ready to try again to bring peace with Pak

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

"If the leaders of Pakistan have the courage, the determination and statesmanship to take this road to peace, I wish to assure them that we will meet them more than half way.," Singh

New Delhi, Jun 9: Saying that it was in India's vital interests to try again to bring peace with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked Islamabad to take strong, effective and sustained action to prevent the use of their territory for the commission of acts of terrorism in India or against Indian interests.

"I recognise, it takes two hands to clap," he said, while hoping that the neighbouring country would respond in a positive way to his offer of fresh effort for peace.

He also asked Pakistan to use all powers at its disposal to bring to justice those who committed crime against India, including the terror attack on Mumbai on November 26 last.

"Such an action will be welcomed by the people of both India and Pakistan," the Prime Minister said.

"If the leaders of Pakistan have the courage, the determination and statesmanship to take this road to peace, I wish to assure them that we will meet them more than half way.," he said, while winding up a 16-hour-long debate in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address.

Dr Singh said India's neighbourhood was in great turbulence.

"India cannot realise its ambition unless there is peace and prosperity in South Asia as a whole." "If our neighbourhood is suffering from instability and turbulence that which has bearing on our evolution as a democratic polity committed to sustained growth and development," Dr Singh said.

Saying that he had a vision of a transformed South Asia in which there was no place for poverty, insecurity and ignorance, he hoped that Pakistan would create an atmosphere in which this vision could be realised.

Dr Singh said what was at stake was the future of 1.5 billion people living in South Asia.

UNI