Pakistan needs to treat all terror groups as pariah: India

New Delhi, Jan 23 (IANS) Pakistan has to treat all terror groups as pariah if it is serious about the war against terrorism, Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh said Friday.

Speaking at the India Today Global Round Table here, the former army chief said every country that joins the war against terror has to cooperate on multiple levels to be successful.

Answering a question about the Pakistani authorities' stand that differentiation between "good Taliban" and "bad Taliban" does not exist and they would ban all terror groups, the minister said every time a terror group was banned, it morphed into something else.

"The Jamaat-ud-Dawa has government support. Pakistan has to treat all terror groups as pariah," he said.

"India was united in its condemnation of the Peshawar massacre of school children. But there is always a question mark on Pakistan's policy against terror," Singh said.

According to a release, Singh said some groups might have been banned by Pakistan but the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed is roaming free.

He said Pakistan has to stop "fanning terror attacks" like it did in Kashmir ahead of the state elections.

On a question if India should engage in talks with the Pakistan Army which wields control over the civilian government, Singh said only elected governments should speak to each other.

He said the US, Europe and India could share intelligence in advance to prevent terror attacks.

"There is a lot of sharing, cooperation with the US. A lot of US presidents have kept relationship with India at a much higher altar. The US should develop a relationship with India that is not transactional or quid pro quo."

Commenting on India's relationship with Afghanistan and the fears that India may lose strategic depth in the region and get edged out, he said Delhi's ties with Kabul were civilisational and India would continue the development aid it had been offering.