New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party today said it was ''disturbing'' that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke about Pakistan itself being a victim of terror at a time when the country had become an ''epicentre'' of terrorism.

BJP spokesman Ravi shankar Prasad taking strong exception to the change in the government's stand on the issue said talks with Pakistan had failed many times in the past because of Pakistan's insistence that its territory was allowed to be used for encouraging or harbouring terrorism against the neighbour.

The January 2004 joint statement between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was possible only because Pakistan openly accepted not to allow its territory to be used by militants and their outfits.

But when the Indian Prime Minister himself conceded that Pakistan is a victim of terror and many autonomous groups were operating in that countgry, it would make things easy for Pakistan ISI which certainly was promoting and strengthening the terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad which have been creating problems not just in Jammu and Kashmir. These outfits left the country bleeding in all the terror attacks. The Prime Minister's change in stance ahead of his meeting with the Pakistan President was ''untimely'' and altered drastically India's traditionally held view, he said.

Referring to the forthcoming talks between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries, Mr Prasad said unless Pakistan produced credible evidence that it had dismantled the terrorist infrastructure in that country, there could no meaningful talks.

UNI MCN MSJ RS1753