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India trying

to externalise

its problems

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday alerted the border authorities to be vigilant to arrest the hijackers of the Indian airliner if they make an attempt to cross into its territory.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Pakistan remains firm on its intent to try the hijackers, in accordance with the law. Border authorities have been alerted to maintain strict vigilance in order to arrest the hijackers if they attempt to enter Pakistan."

He said, the subsequent Indian propaganda campaign against Pakistan," is a crude attempt to externalise her own problems."

Since the end of the hijacking the Indian government has not established any contact with the Government of Pakistan.

The spokesman said, in spite of loud public promises, India has failed to provide any evidence or any relevant information to Pakistan which would facilitate the arrest of the hijackers or prove that they had any links in Pakistan.

"Lack of any information regarding their identity has so far frustrated attempts to find them," he said.

The spokesman said: "Fabrication of allegations without a shred of evidence is reprehensible."

If India continues to avoid disclosing their identity and refuses to provide information available to it, "the world will conclude that India is protecting the hijackers by hiding their identity so that they can safely return to India," he said.

New Delhi should also make available the transcripts of the negotiation conducted with the hijackers by the Indian negotiators at Kandahar Airport, he said.

Meanwhile the Indian Government has continued with its false propaganda implicating Pakistan in the Indian Airlines plane hijacking.

This "increasingly appears like a stage managed drama to enable India, in the words of Prime Minister Vajpayee to "systematically pursue the objective" of ensuring that Pakistan is declared a terrorist state."

The FO spokesman said, the Civil Aviation Minister of the Afghanistan Government has now publicly stated that India had consented that the hijackers should be let off and given 10 hours time to leave Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Information Minister of Afghanistan had refuted the Indian Foreign Minister's allegation that the hijackers were Pakistanis and they had left for Quetta.-APP