Terrorist infiltration impossible without Pakistan support: India

India on Thursday said it had told Pakistan that infiltration of heavily armed terrorists from across the border cannot take place without the "active and collaborative support of Pakistani security forces".

Responding to a media query on India handing a demarche to Pakistan envoy to India Abdul Basit on Wednesday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said it was in the context of the Sunday's terror attack in Jammu Kashmir's Uri town and the strong evidence that points to the involvement of organisations and individuals based in Pakistan or territory under its control.

"... such bids cannot be continuously mounted without the active and collaborative support of Pakistani security forces," said Swarup.

Swarup said that Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar had told Basit that the nature and frequency of infiltration from across the Line of Control of heavily armed terrorists belies the claim of the Pakistani army that the border has 'water-tight arrangements' from the Pakistani side.

The ministry spokesperson said that Basit was conveyed the details of various items seized from slain terrorists involved in the Uri attack that killed 18 soldiers.

"The Foreign Secretary offered that in case the Pakistan government wished to investigate these cross-border attacks, we are ready to provide fingerprints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in Uri and Poonch incidents," said Swarup.

"I would like to underline that our offer is limited to providing fingerprints and DNA evidence to Pakistan so that Islamabad can verify it against their national database and confirm that the terrorists who attacked the Indian facilities were indeed Pakistani nationals," the MEA spokesperson added.

--IANS

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