India had no specific information on 26/11: Krishna

NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has said that India had received only “general and non-specific” information prior to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Krishna said: “We had some general and non-specific information which we had received prior to the Mumbai terror attack. But it was not so specific. It was by and large general.”

Krishna was answering a query on whether revelations that US officials knew about the conspiracy of the Mumbai attack through the estranged wife of Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley were conveyed to India.

Asked whether Headley’s revelations will cast a shadow on the forthcoming visit of US President Barack Obama to India, Krishna said: “India and US are strategic partners. Our ties are multi-faceted. We share a common outlook in a number of areas, including the scourge of terrorism.

Stressing on the importance of Indo-Pak dialogue, Krishna said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would visit India in the first quarter of 2011.

“He was originally supposed to come end of this year, But now it would happen hopefully in the first quarter of 2011,” he said.

“India believes that dialogue and continuation of talks that were initiated by me will have to be carried on,” he added. By Sandhya Sharma (ANI)