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Declare Pakistan a terrorist state, says PM

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Monday said India will work towards getting Pakistan declared a terrorist state.

Talking to newspersons during his visit to Pune where he inaugurated the 87th Indian Science Congress at the University of Pune on Monday, Vajpayee strongly urged major nations of the world to declare Pakistan a terrorist state as its active and sustained role in fomenting terrorism in India is very obvious.

''I hope the United States would take an initiative in this regard,'' the prime minister said while responding to a question.

Referring to the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, Vajpayee said all the information available with the government made it clear that it (hijacking) was an ''integral part of the Pakistan-backed campaign of terrorism.''

Apart from their stated demands, the hijackers and their mentors had planned to internationalise the Kashmir issue and isolate India diplomatically, Vajpayee said. However, they had miserably failed in their diabolical design, he added.

''If anything got internationalised during the hijacking crisis, it was not Kashmir issue but the brazen resort to terrorism by those seeking to break India's unity and integrity,'' he said.

The terrorist action of the hijackers has been condemned by governments and people around the world, he said, adding that ''now the anti-India forces have got isolated in the eyes of the world community. This development has vastly furthered India's long-term interests.''

''It has strengthened the legitimacy of India's stand on Kashmir and simultaneously shown to the world community that Pakistan's Kashmir agenda is not only baseless, but is being pursued by recourse to terrorism which constitutes a patent threat to the global security,'' he observed.

UNI

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