NEW DELHI, Jan 13: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband assured India on Tuesday that President Asif Ali Zardari was sincere in his resolve to fight terrorism and encouraged New Delhi’s restraint with Islamabad as a mature way to deal with the fallout of the Mumbai terror attacks.

“I believe that President Zardari is sincere when he says he wants to tackle the scourge of terrorism in Pakistan,” Mr Miliband told a joint news conference here with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

He emphatically disagreed with India’s accusations that Pakistan’s state institutions were somehow complicit in the Mumbai carnage. “I have said publicly that I do not believe that the attacks were directed by the Pakistani state. And I think it is important to restate that,” he told a questioner. “What is relevant is the approach of the Pakistani state to the LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) organisation and the way the Pakistani state takes on the menace of the LeT organisation.”

The British minister felt it was vital that the “whole of the Pakistani state machine support” Mr Zardari’s campaign against terrorism. He said he also thought it was vital that the whole of the Pakistani population recognised that after the last couple of bloody years, terrorism was a threat to Pakistan. “Terrorism is not someone else’s war in Pakistan. It is their own battle that they need to face if they are to build the sort of secure and decent society that they need.”

Mr Miliband’s persuasion seemed to work with India. Mr Mukherjee said he had already shared with Britain “the evidence that has emerged linking the attacks with Pakistan” and that he favoured concerted international pressure on Pakistan to take firm action.

“We do believe that this is a problem which is to be addressed collectively by the international community so that the perpetrators of terror attacks are brought to justice. Attack on Mumbai by the terrorists need not be looked at through the prism of Indo-Pakistan relationship. It is a part of the global terrorist activities. Terrorism has no respect for any boundary. They simply believe in violence and destruction. Therefore, it is the biggest menace to the humanity and it is to be confronted,” Mr Mukherjee said.

He hoped that Pakistan would implement the Saarc Anti-Terror Convention and the Protocol of 2004. “I do hope the material which we have provided to Pakistan, evidences which we have given, they will act on it and they will ensure that the perpetrators of this terror act are brought to justice, and some of the fugitives violating Indian laws who have taken shelter in Pakistan will be handed over to India for their proper justice.”

Mr Miliband praised “the maturity and the wisdom, and the strength of the Indian response refusing to lurch into actions that could make the situation worse” and said New Delhi had set the right example. “I think it is very important that Pakistan repays that by following through on an agenda for criminal justice that is in the interest of Pakistan as well as in the interest of India.”

Obviously responding to the relentless demands by Indian hawks for military action against Pakistan, Mr Miliband made some sobering observations. He said: “The truth is that Pakistan is vital for the security of India, but also vital for the security of Afghanistan.” Terrorism had harmed Pakistan as well as India. “And we see the correct approach as being what the Pakistani authorities call a multi-pronged approach, a security approach, a political approach, and an economic approach. That in our view is the correct strategy.”