NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Faced with unrelenting international pressure and incontrovertible evidence put together by India and US's FBI, Pakistan on
Thursday, 79 days after the Mumbai attacks, was forced to acknowledge that the heinous strikes were plotted from its soil. It also acknowledged that some of the perpetrators were from Laskhar-e-Taiba, the jihadi outfit aligned with ISI.
The confession surprised many because it came close on the heels of a series of red herrings which suggested that Islamabad, rather than accepting any blame, would point its finger at terrorist organisations not active on its territory, and surpassed India's expectations. India later said it was a positive development.
"Some part of it was planned in Pakistan," Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik said, as he went on to disclose that Pakistan had so far arrested six men for the crime. The FIR registered in the SIT police station in Islamabad names eight people but Malik disclosed only six names, arguing that revealing the identities of the remaining two might hamper investigations.
Malik said Pakistan was sending a list of 30 questions to India as information on them would help the investigations. He revealed just some of the 30 questions. Pakistan has wanted to know how SIM cards were acquired by the terrorists in India; has sought the DNA samples of the 10 attackers; and has wanted to know who helped the attackers to refuel their boat off the Gujarat coast.
Significantly, Malik did not elaborate on the role of either Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi or Zarar Shah, the two LeT commanders indentified as masterminds not just by India but also the US, leading many in India to wonder if Pakistan was trying to sell a dummy to the world. Lakhvi was named as the chief plotter by Ajmal Amir Kasab, the arrested terrorist. Likewise, the email sent by Deccan Mujahideen, the fictitious outfit created by Lashkar to erase Pakistani fingerprints, to own up the massacre was traced to Shah's computer. The two are not among the eight named in the FIR.
Malik conceded that Lakhvi could have imparted training to the perpetrators. Although he said the two Lashkar bigwigs were in police custody, he added that action against them was subject to further investigations.
Malik, instead, named one Hamad Amin Sadiq as the main conspirator. Hamad, according to Malik, belongs to southern Punjab in Pakistan but was now living in Karachi. He has been arrested. Other arrested persons are Riaz, Khan, Abu Alqama, Javed Iqbal and Mohammad Ashfaq. Their nationality wasn't confirmed but the minister did not deny that they could be Pakistanis.
The name of Alqama rings a bell in India. He is a senior LeT terrorist active in Kashmir on whose Thuraya satellite phone the Mumbai attackers communicated. It could not be ascertained, however, whether the two are the same. Malik said that apart from Pakistan, the attack was facilitated from several other countries like India, US, Spain, Austria and Italy.
His account suggested that the findings and arrests followed detailed, even painstaking, investigation by Pakistan' FIA. Malik said the FIA, Pakistan's equivalent of India's CBI, traced the owner of the shop in Karachi from where a dinghy was bought by the perpetrators. "We traced the owner of the shop where the rubber boat was purchased. We were told by the shopkeeper that the man who bought it gave a telephone number. When we reached the number it was closed. We obtained a lead that went to a bank. There was an account of someone related to an act of terrorism. The account led to an individual who was involved in the Mumbai attacks. He gave us a number of other leads which we do not want to make public," said the minister, adding that India had provided only sketchy information.
Hamad is said to have facilitated money transfer for the attacks. Iqbal and Ashfaq are said to have acquired the VoIP connection, used for making calls, in Spain. Iqbal, a resident of Barcelona, was ``lured'' to Pakistan and arrested, said the minister. Malik also said that one of the SIM cards used was purchased from Austria.
Loading...
2:13
Mumbai Terror Attack Kasab who? Pak village forgets terrorist's family overniteby saddlesmania14,896 views
where is madarchod defence analyst zaid hamid of pakhijristan ho was saying mumbai terror attack a drama, behan kae laude ye video dikhao india main bulake, aur mehwaannawaazi main suar ki tatti khilao, maa ke laude ko, har baat main jhooth bolta hai, jase baaqi duniya chtuiya aur saare akal mand allah ki gaand se nikle hain pakistan main.
gauravcurious 6 months ago
sach to sach hai...
babaaj 6 months ago