New Delhi: The United States of America is intensifying the pressure on Pakistan after Islamabad reiterated that it won't extradite the Mumbai terror attack suspects based on its soil to India.
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher is likely to meet Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday in Islamabad and discuss the issue.
Qureshi confirmed that he will be meeting Boucher but did not reveal the agenda while addressing a press conference in Multan. He also added that Pakistan does not have an extradition treaty with India.
"We have a treaty with the US; we do not have an extradition treaty with India. Please do not compare; every situation is not identical," Qureshi said on Sunday.
He also rejected claims that there was a link between the Kashmir issue and the Mumbai attacks. “Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir issue remains the same. Mumbai is an issue that is related to terrorism," he said.
Boucher is also expected to visit India to discuss the situation following the Mumbai attacks and will meet Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon during which the two sides will deliberate on how the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror strikes can be brought to justice.
The two sides are expected to discuss the latest in the investigations into the attacks which were carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba.
India has already prepared a dossier of evidence about involvement of LeT whose 10 heavily-armed terrorists came from Karachi to launch attacks in Mumbai on November 26.
The dossier includes confession of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the Mumbai attacks, and technical evidence. The dossier has satellite phone intercepts and a record of the logbooks recovered from MV Kuber, the boat by which the 10 terrorists came from Karachi to Mumbai.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US also has conducted a parallel probe into the attacks in which six Americans lost their lives.
The FBI has already questioned Kasab and also has other technical evidence regarding involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in the attacks.
Meanwhile, India is also expected to share with China evidence of the involvement of Lashkar and other Pakistan-based elements in the Mumbai terror attack later on Monday.
Foreign Secretary Menon will be sharing the details with the visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei.
He Yafei is also expected to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the National Security Adviser MK Naraayanan during his visit.
India wants China to pressurise Pakistan to end cross border terrorism against India.
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