Confusion over Pak reply to dossier

Agencies

New Delhi: National Security Adviser M K Narayanan's disclosure that Pakistan has reverted to India with regard to dossier about Mumbai terror attacks appears to have generated confusion as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has maintained that there has been no official response from Islamabad.

In a TV interview, Narayanan has said, "What I am aware of is that after the receipt of the dossier by Pakistan, the Pakistan government has reverted to us and asked number of questions to which answers are being provided.

I presume they are yet to receive replies to the second set of queries they have made.

" He added that "as far as we are concerned, we believe Pakistan is making an attempt to arrive at the truth" with regard to the Mumbai attacks. "Certainly they appear to be taking things seriously.

At least they are proceeding in a manner one would expect an investigating agency to proceed, asking questions and not accepting at face value everything that has been given, which is good news from our point of view." At around the same time the NSA's interview was being recorded yesterday, Mukherjee said in a statement that Pakistan had given no response officially to the Indian dossier.

"I would like to underline that we have so far not received any official Pakistani response to the Indian dossier or official information on the outcome of their investigation. These are awaited," Mukherjee had said.