Pakistan's 'intention' of extending all possible help to India to combat terrorism is not only not translating into action, some of its leaders are going back on their words and flatly refusing to meet India's demands.
Is Pakistan taking India for a ride? The way the talks between senior leaders of the two countries have been proceeding, (or the lack of it) definitely suggests it is.
Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had called upon President Zardari to close down the "infrastructure" that enables terrorist strikes against India.
With the UN Security Council and USA in the form of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, coming down heavily on Pakistan, it had made a move to arrest some of the leading leaders of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity in Pakistan, which has been declared a terrorist outfit by the UN and banned.
The so-called charity had been acting as the operating front of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned militant outfit which is responsible for the terror attacks on Mumbai, as well others in the past.
The President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, who while describing India and Pakistan allies in the fight against terrorism and a victim of the same, had pledged full support to India.
The same people however, on India's demand to hand over leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa including Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Maulana Masood Azhar, categorically refused to hand over any suspects to India for interrogation.
Britain's PM Gordon Brown too received the same response when he requested his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani to let Scotland Yard question terror suspects.
President Zardari's statement on the Mumbai terrorists being "stateless actors" had met with a stinging retort from India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"Are the non-state actors coming from heaven, or they are coming from a different planet?" Mukherjee asked.
"Non-state actors are operating from a particular country.
What we are most respectfully submitting, suggesting to the government of Pakistan: Please act.
Mere expression of intention is not adequate.
" Zardari had subsequently amended his statement and he agreed with secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's formulation that Pakistan had to be responsible for non-state actors.
But inspite of everything Pakistani leaders are going steady on their refusal to deport anybody to India.
Their only sop to India is their willingness to hold a joint investigation for the Mumbai terror attacks, for which India has already expressed its unwillingness.
The point that is being reiterated by Pakistan is clearly making the two countries go around in circles instead of taking any concrete action.
Pakistan says that India has not shared evidence with them, while India says that it can only share evidence after the probe is over.
In addition to this, the clear difference between Pakistan's 'intention' and ground reality is there for the world to see.
The detained members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the latest religio-political front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been released and their sprawling complex at Muridke near Lahore continues to operate.
Not only that, it is open to visiting journalists who are taken around by JuD "spokesman" Abdullah Muntazir.
The icing on the cake is that JuD has a flourishing website which answers all questions about its links with Al Qaida and its response to a ban ordered by the UN Security Council, as reported in the Times of India.
And Hafiz Saeed, leader of Jud, unabashedly continues to preach virulent anti-India sentiments.
In the wake of situation the India-Pakistan peace process has been severely dented.
Surface words seem like a sham, since these words are not being translated into action.
With Zardari and Gilani very diplomatically veering any question on the actual action taken against LeT, things are continuously reaching square one.
Is India not being taken for a ride by Pakistan?