Islamabad: The Pakistan government denies, clarifies and then admits when it comes to its making statements on India after the Mumbai terror attacks.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari first said the alleged violation of Pakistani airspace by Indian planes was a "technical incursion" and downplayed the issue. On Thursday, Pakistan summoned an Indian diplomat and registered a formal protest.
The Indian deputy high commissioner in Islamabad was summoned to the foreign ministry and a diplomatic note was handed over to him, said a statement by the Pakistan Foreign Office.
The Indian official was conveyed about Pakistan's concerns over the technical air space violations by the Indian aircraft on December 12 and 13, which were against the 1991 agreement between India and Pakistan on Prevention of Air Space Violations, the statement said.
Zardari had on Sunday said at a news conference that the Indian aircraft had made a "technical mistake" while flying over an altitude of some 50,000 feet. India has denied any violation of Pakistan's airspace.
Show us proof: Zardari
In another U-turn, Zardari said there was no "real evidence" that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai came from Pakistan.
"Have you seen any evidence to that effect. I have definitely not seen any real evidence to that effect," Zardari told BBC in an interview.
Zardari had earlier acknowledged that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, could be 'non-state' actors from Pakistan.
"I think we will hold that judgement till proper investigation and conclusive evidence is shared between Pakistan and India. We are hoping that will happen because we have asked for a joint investigation."
Zardari said Islamabad was prepared to act if adequate evidence of any Pakistan complicity in the attacks emerged. "If that stage comes, and when it comes, I assure you that our parliament, our democracy, shall take the action properly deemed in our constitution and in our law," he said.
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"Let me assure you that if there is any investigation to be found pointing towards his involvement in any form of terrorism, he shall be tried for that reason," Zardari said.
Where is Masood Azhar? Pak doesn’t know
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a flip-flop like Zardari’s, said Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, one of India's most wanted criminals, has not been arrested and is "still at large".
"Maulana Masood Azhar is wanted by the government of Pakistan, but he is not in our custody and he is at large," Qureshi told state-run APP news agency on Wednesday.
This contradicts what Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said last week. Mukhtar had told a TV channel that Azhar had been detained and Islamabad might even allow Indian investigators to question him.
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