LAHORE: Pakistan has finally acknowledged for the first time, almost 80 days after the Mumbai terror attacks, that they were partly planned in Pakistan and that it has already arrested six suspects, including the main operator, who will be tried under the Pakistani law.
In its first official response to the January 5, 2009 dossier provided by India, Pakistan said on Thursday that criminal cases had been registered against nine suspects on charges of “abetting, conspiracy and facilitation” of a terrorist act. However, Pakistan added that more evidence is required from India, including the DNA samples of the attackers, especially those of Ajmal Kasab, to establish his identity. Addressing a press conference, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik told the media that FIR No: 01/009 had been lodged with the Special Investigation Group (SIG) in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against nine suspects. The investigators have identified Hammad Amin Sadiq as the alleged mastermind of the whole conspiracy, he added.
Rehman Malik said the cases against nine persons had been registered under the Anti-Terror Act (ATA) and the Cyber Crime Act and they would be tried under these two sets of laws. “Six of the nine accused named in the FIR have already been arrested and being interrogated, two have been identified but not arrested so far while investigations are still under way into the possible involvement of the ninth accused”, he said, adding that those taken into custody are the chief operational commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi who was arrested from Muzaffarabad soon after the Indian government alleged that the Lashkar was behind the, Javed Iqbal, who was arrested from Barcelona, Spain, Hammad Amin Sadiq, believed to be the main operator belonging to southern Punjab, Zarar Shah, Mohammad Ashfaq and Abu Hamza.
However, the Pakistani foreign office strongly dismisses suggestions that the unprecedented Feb 12 submission by Islamabad about its ‘partial’ involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks was under intense international pressure, saying it had always intended to investigate the Pakistani origins of the Mumbai tragedy. However, an erroneous impression about the intention of Pakistan government had gained ground because India took the stories in media as Pakistan’s official version.
Diplomatic circles in Islamabad, however, say Pakistan’s admission was because of the intense pressure from the United States, which was quite worried about the escalating crisis in the subcontinent throwing its ongoing war against terror in disarray. More significantly, Pakistan couldn’t deny citizens’ role in Mumbai because America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) had been involved in India’s investigations from the very beginning. “The FBI had shared solid evidence with India and the authorities in Islamabad were well aware of the fact that the FBI already knew too much”.
Pakistan’s first step towards acquiescence came when it accepted that the lone surviving Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab was its national. But the government in Islamabad was apparently reluctant to go any further, largely because of the pressure from the country’s all-powerful military and intelligence establishment. But the problem with Islamabad was that the evidence about the involvement of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was too telling. “Had Pakistan refused to accept Lashkar’s role in the Mumbai attacks, Islamabad’s credibility in the international arena would have suffered inordinately”.
The country’s military establishment is wary that Pakistan couldn’t come clean because of the danger of India raising fresh demands. Some believed that New Delhi will demand the extradition of the LeT’s under detention chief operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi now as Pakistan has officially accepted that he trained the Mumbai terrorists. And this raises the question: will Pakistan hand over Lakhvi and others to India who are wanted in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks? The unanimous consent is: No. “If we hand him over to India, the role the Pakistani intelligence establishment had played in the Mumbai attacks will be unraveled. Can we afford such an embarrassment?” asked a Pakistani diplomat.
But couldn’t Pakistan hand over the guilty to the US because three American nationals staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel were also killed in the Mumbai attacks? No, say most of the analysts, citing Pakistan’s history to support their argument. For instance, the US had asked for the extradition of Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed, who was convicted of kidnapping and beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl. However, Pakistan refused to oblige, saying the crime was committed on the Pakistani soil by a Pakistani national and thus he should be tried by a local court. In other words, the Pakistani establishment is unlikely to take any step that could risk exposing its link to terror groups.
The fact, however, remains that this is the first time in the Pakistani history that a senior representative of a sitting government in Islamabad has ever conceded that a major terrorist attack on the Indian soil was planned in Pakistan. There can be no doubt that the admission could mean serious implications for the country’s security services. The ‘frank’ admission by Rehman Malik at a press conference came at the end of Special American representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Mr Holbrooke’s Islamabad visit and follows the first telephone contact between Presidents Barack Obama and President Asif Zardari.
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