NSA says Pak’s non-state actors perform state functions

A day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked tough with Pakistan,National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said “non-state actors were acting for the state in India’s neighbourhood”.

Addressing a session at the first National Conference on International Relations on Saturday,Menon said: “I say this from the experience of my job,sixty per cent of what I look at and deal with is not states dealing with states. We see it immediately in our own neighbourhood.”

Without naming any country,he said: “Where do you draw the distinction in the whole spectrum of this conflict,in terrorism,state-sponsored terrorism…the so-called non-state actors perform state functions.”