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ISLAMABAD - Revealing that three-quarters of the most serious terrorism plots being investigated in Britain had links to al Qaeda groups in Pakistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed a new "pact against terror" with the south Asian country yesterday and pledged 6 million ($16 million) to help to defuse radicalism.
Brown also blamed the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last month's massacres in Mumbai and asked the leaders of both India and Pakistan for permission for British police to question those arrested so far.
Brown's visit appeared to be both an attempt to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours while also pressuring Pakistan to do more to confront extremists operating inside its borders.
He offered British counter-terrorism training as well as the multimillion-pound programme for educational materials to fight back against the tide of militant propaganda, saying the measures would "break the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK".
The Prime Minister described the agreement as "the most comprehensive anti-terrorist programme Britain has signed with any country". As he met Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, he delivered a decidedly blunt warning to Pakistan, saying: "The time has come for action, not words."
In the days since the attacks on Mumbai that left more than 160 people dead, Pakistan - under intense pressure from India, the US and other countries - has rounded up several dozen members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and a charity group, Jamaat ud Dawa, which is closely associated with the group.
Earlier in New Delhi, Brown met the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to whom he also offered assistance in dealing with terrorism.
He also asked for permission to allow British detectives to speak with suspects, including the surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab. Brown said: "I think we all have an interest in discovering what lay behind the Mumbai outrages."
- INDEPENDENT
