Qureshi assuages India’s fears over diversion of US supplied weapons

LAHORE - Allaying India’s concern over the misuse of weapons that Pakistan is receiving from the United States, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has assured New Delhi that the armaments would be put to use only against the extremists.

Referring to Defence Minister A K Antony’s statement that India is concerned about the possibility of weapons being diverted towards the Indian border, Qureshi said India should not worry, as the weapons would only be used in anti-terror operations.

“The military equipment that we are getting from the United States should not worry India, because it is meant for counter-terrorism and to enhance our capacity to fight terrorist networks,” The Dawn quoted Qureshi, as saying.

“They (India) should not be afraid of this because it will be used against terrorist networks who have made this region unsafe,” he added.

On Friday, Antony had said that New Delhi has already warned Washington about the possibility of the equipments supplied by it to Islamabad to fight against the Taliban being diverted to target India.

“We have already conveyed our concern about transfer of (U.S.) equipment to Pakistan. We told them (Americans) our fear, even though US is giving equipment to Pakistan to fight against Taliban,” Antony had told media persons media on the sidelines of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Border Road Organisation (BRO) in New Delhi.

“We feel there is every possibility of (Pakistan) diverting most of them to the Indian borders. We told the U.S. that they have to be careful about that,” Antony said while replying to a question about Pakistan using U.S. supplied weapons in a military exercise focusing on India’s western borders. (ANI)