January 4, 2008 (LPAC) - India wants a "strong, stable and prosperous" Pakistan, also in its own interests, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi today. When asked about Western media reports on the potential for Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into "Jehadi hands" - a scenario posed by the British and the neocons in the US to justify western military intervention - Mukherjee asserted that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is "in command" of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. "Everybody will have concerns if they (nuclear weapons) fall into wrong hands or if non-state actors have access to them. But, perhaps now President Musharraf is in command of the situation and I think he is also the civilian head of the command of the nuclear system."

In Pakistan's history, it had gone through many difficult situations, said Mukherjee, but, at the same time, it had shown there was "strength and resilience in the system to overcome them." On Jammu and Kashmir, he said that India is "engaged in a Composite Dialogue with Pakistan. We are pinning hopes on the assurances in the Joint Statement of January 6, 2004 that Pakistan's territory will not be allowed to be used by terrorists. We are hoping that they will adhere to the commitments and that the [terrorist] infrastructure which are there will be destroyed."