Asserting that state-sponsored terrorism from across the border cannot be accepted, President Pranab Mukherjee has said India wants peace with Pakistan but there can be no compromise with its own territorial integrity.
"Terrorist activities must be curbed. And, state-sponsored terrorism can never be accepted. Therefore, repeatedly, we are saying, please dismantle the terrorist outfits which are located in your area," he said in an interview to Euronews.
President Mukherjee, who is presently on an official visit to Belgium, said non-state actors who perpetrate terrorism was a word used by Pakistan.
"It may not be. But non-state actors, that is the phrase they used, then I responded by saying that non-state actors are not coming from heaven. Non-state actors are coming from territory under your control," said President Mukherjee.
"And not now, in 2004 Pakistan agreed that their territories will not be allowed to be used by forces inimical to India," he added, when he was asked to comment that India says that this is state-sponsored terrorism and Pakistan says it is not state-sponsored terrorism.
President Mukherjee said India wants peace with its neighbours.
"In 1971, when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan, India entered into an agreement which is known as Shimla Agreement...ninety-one thousand imprisoned soldiers, prisoners of war, were returned," President Mukherjee said.
"This was just to show the goodwill that in our basic foreign policy we do not have any territorial ambition, we do not have any ambition to export our ideology to any country or we do not have any commercial interests," he added.
He also stressed that no nation can, however, compromise on its territorial integrity.
