By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : With the terrorism trial of Pakistan-born Tahawwur Hussain Rana widely expected to expose Pakistan’s link to terrorists, the United States has sought answers from Islamabad about the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
“Those are allegations, and we’ve asked the Pakistani Government to address those allegations in the past,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Monday when asked about the alleged involvement of Pakistani spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in the November 2008 attack.
He, however, declined to give details citing it as a legal matter with ongoing court proceedings in a Chicago court.
“There’s a criminal or rather a trial ongoing now that’s aiming to answer some of those questions. But I don’t want to get into it beyond that,” Toner said.
“I think we’ve been clear, again, that this is an ongoing legal process, trial, and so I can’t say a lot about it,” he said.
“But speaking globally about the Mumbai attacks, we have asked that all parties answer questions that have been raised by the Mumbai attacks,” Toner said.
Asked if the State Department has started a process to get access to four Pakistanis named in the Rana case, Toner said he didn’t have any answer and would have to check. “I don’t know.”
Besides Rana and Pakistani American David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to his role, four others charged in absentia include his Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handlers “Major Iqbal” and Sajid Mir.
Also indicted is Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of the terror group Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI) who also is believed to be Al Qaeda’s operational chief in Pakistan.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])