Karachi: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday rejected India's claims that Pakistan was not doing enough to punish those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks and said Islamabad is willing to cooperate and listen to New Delhi's grievances.
"We want friendly relations with India and we are willing to cooperate and listen to all their grievances. At the same time we are doing our best to ensure the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are punished," Malik told reporters on Wednesday night at the Karachi airport.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said confidence cannot be restored between India and Pakistan till Islamabad takes action against the "real culprits" responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Talking to a delegation of Pakistani journalists in New Delhi, Chidambaram said that all evidences regarding Mumbai attacks had been handed over to Pakistan.
New Delhi recently handed over to Islamabad a list of five individuals linked to the Mumbai incident, including an army officer, but no action had been taken by Pakistani authorities so far, he said.
Malik confirmed that India had handed over a fresh dossier but said he have not looked at it yet. "I can assure the Indian government and people we are sincere in our efforts to fight terrorism and we will ensure those behind the Mumbai attacks don't go unpunished," Malik said.
"We had proposed a joint judicial commission to be set up to India for the Mumbai attack case but they have not responded as yet," he said.
Malik said that the government had arrested seven people involved in the Mumbai attacks who were on trial and in jails.
"We are holding their trial on fast track basis and I can assure Indians If they are found guilty they will be punished."
Malik insisted that the Pakistan government was sincere about fighting terrorism and not allowing anyone to use its soil to carry out terror attacks anywhere else.
"We have said enough is enough and we are down hard on terrorists because we don't think they deserve to be shown any leniency."
But the minister said that if India had grievances over Pakistan's handling of the Mumbai terror attack suspects Pakistan also had its grievances.
"We sincerely want to have friendly relations with India and I say the only way forward is to bring our grievances to the table and discuss and sort them out."
Malik said that Pakistan had also asked India to share information about the attack on the Samjhauta Express and had also sent a questionnaire on David Headley but were still waiting for a response from the Indian government.
Malik described Headley as a double agent. "The names of the Pakistanis he is taking we can't just act on his accusations."
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