After today's attack, India hopes Pak will secure its N-assets

India today hoped that Pakistan government will "effectively secure" its nuclear assets, amid concerns over their safety in the wake of a terror strike at a facility housing such arsenal.

India also made known its unhappiness over "very very slow and tardy" progress of investigation and prosecution in the Mumbai attacks case as also in the case relating to the attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul last year.

"We have seen reports of what happened today at Kamra (in Pakistan). We hope the Pakistan government will continue to take steps to effectively secure their nuclear assets," foreign secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters here.

She was asked to comment on the terror attack near a strategic military complex reportedly linked to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme near Islamabad.

The attack has triggered concerns over safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

Asked about the sense India is getting about the status of probe and prosecution by Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks, Rao referred to the meeting she had with Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir and the discussions external affairs minister SM Krishna had with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York last month.

"During these meetings, of course, we emphasised our concerns about the very very slow and tardy pace of action being taken against those responsible, conspirators and others responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks," she said.

The foreign secretary said India has conveyed its concerns to Pakistan with "all seriousness and emphasis" over the "very very slow pace of not only action that is supposed to be taken but the whole business of trial that they are supposed to conduct against the accused."

Rao also voiced unhappiness over the absence of progress in probe by Pakistan into the terror attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7 last year, which was suspected to have been carried out by Taliban in collaboration with ISI.

Responding to a question on it, she said there has been "lack of progress from Pakistan side when it comes to investigation of all the long series of terrorist attacks that have been directed against us from their soil."

Afghanistan and India had then suggested that the attack was carried out from Pakistani soil and intelligence agencies were involved.

Two months later, prime minister Manmohan Singh took up the issue with his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani in Colombo on the sidelines of SAARC Summit and the Pakistani leader had promised an inquiry to ascertain whether ISI was
involved. Nothing was known about that later.

On the latest attack on the Kabul Embassy on October 8, she said the Afghan leadership had pointed to "involvement of forces that, in all likelihood, operated from across its border", an apparent indication to Pakistan.

Rao, who visited Kabul after the attack and met Karzai and foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, said Afghanistan is conducting an inquiry into what happened and "we are awaiting results of the full inquiry".