Will Modi govt act to ensure Pak is declared a terrorist state: Cong

The Congress today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if his government would take action to ensure that Pakistan was declared a "terrorist state" by the international community, following former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif's admission on the 26/11 terror attacks.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who goes uninvited to have 'daawat' at the house of the same Nawaz Sharif, needs to answer today that in light of this categorical admission by the former Pakistani prime minister, will this government take action to ensure that Pakistan is declared a terrorist state by the world community," Congress's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala told reporters here.

He added that this would lead to imposition of sanctions -- both civil, military and economic -- on Pakistan.

Surjewala said Sharif, whose party PML(N) continued to rule Pakistan, had made a glaring and shocking admission that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was guided, perpetrated and conspired in Pakistan and had the active protection of both State and non-State actors.

He added that this was categorically stated before the world community by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA government, which had led to sanctions against Pakistan.

"Will Prime Minister Modi show the courage of conviction and the 56-inch chest to ensure that action is taken against the perpetrators of 26/11, who are neither being adequately tried nor punished in Pakistan?" Surjewala asked.

The Congress leader said the trial of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack should either be held under the guidance of international agencies or they should be handed over to India, so that they faced the trial here like Ajmal Kasab, one of the 26/11 attackers who was captured alive by the police and executed after a court found him guilty.

"The perpetrators of these attacks, who are flourishing in Pakistan, instead of being tried and punished, can also be similarly punished by the Indian laws," he said.