(30 Sep 2006)
1. Wide exterior pan of Cabinet building and Parliament
2. Close up of Pakistani flag
3. Pakistani State Minister for Information watching television in his office
4. Close up on TV screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tariq Azim, Pakistani State Minister for Information:
"This is nothing new. Every time any such incident takes place in India it's almost a knee jerk reaction now, that they every time find it easy to blame Pakistan without giving any evidence, without providing any proofs."
6. Close up of minister's hands
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tariq Azim, Pakistani State Minister for Information:
"But we feel that such baseless allegations made against Pakistan do not help the peace process that is going on. We hope that the recent statement of President Musharraf, when he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, that we should share intelligence, so that we can root out this scourge of terrorism, and that can only happen when two countries work together and not make wild allegations."
8. Wide of minister talking to journalist
STORYLINE:
Pakistan on Saturday rejected an Indian claim that its spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, masterminded the July 11 Mumbai train bombings which killed more than 200 people.
Speaking to Associated Press Television, Tariq Azim, the Pakistani minister of state for information, said it wasn't the first time that New Delhi had blamed Pakistan for attacks in India.
"Every time any such incident takes place in India it's almost a knee-jerk reaction now, that they every time find it easy to blame Pakistan without giving any evidence, without providing any proof," he said.
He went on to describe the accusation as "baseless" and said that such "wild allegations" were not conducive to fostering cooperation between the two countries.
The Pakistani reaction came after Mumbai police Commissioner A.N. Roy said the attacks had been masterminded by Pakistan's spy agency and carried out by a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, assisted by the Students Islamic Movement of India, a banned Islamic group.
The Mumbai police chief was speaking to reporters at the conclusion of a police investigation into the bombings, which tore apart packed commuter trains.
Roy said 15 people had been arrested so far, including 11 Pakistanis. Three Indians were still on the run, he added, and another Pakistani bomber was killed in the blasts.
The accusation came just weeks after Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to push forward with a peace process that had been suspended since the bombing.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations and have fought three wars against each other since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the Kashmir conflict alone.
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