By IANS,
New Delhi : Refusing to react to media reports about Pakistan’s decision to file charges against Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Mumbai attacker in Indian custody, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday again asked Islamabad to respond officially to New Delhi’s 26/11 dossier.
“We have yet to get a report from (Pakistan). The problem is unless we have official information from Pakistani authorities, it is difficult for any (Indian) official spokesperson to comment,” Mukherjee told reporters outside his office.
His comments came as a Pakistani TV channel reported that Islamabad had charged Kasab and some others with involvement in the Nov 26-29 Mumbai attacks that killed some 170 people. Pakistan had initially claimed that Kasab was not its national.
Indicating that India was planning to intensify international response on Pakistan, Mukherjee said that he will discuss the Mumbai attacks with US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke when he comes to New Delhi. The response came to a question as to why the Mumbai attacks had not figured during Holbrooke’s talks with Pakistani leaders.
“It’s not his (Holbrooke’s) concern. His mandate is to deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan and not India,” Mukherjee replied.
Holbrooke, who is currently in Pakistan on a fact-finding tour, is expected in New Delhi Sunday.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Tuesday said that the Mumbai attacks did not figure in talks Holbrooke held with Pakistani leaders.
Pakistan’s Geo TV channel said a case has been filed against Kasab and 13 other people after the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) conducted a probe into the Mumbai attacks. Islamabad ordered the FIA probe after New Delhi presented a dossier over two months ago that seeks to link Pakistani nationals with the Mumbai attacks.
Kasab reportedly told Indian authorities that he and his nine other attackers were Pakistanis and he was in touch during the Mumbai attacks with his handlers in that country.
Indian authorities are expected to frame charges against Kasab by the end of February.
Although India is waiting for an official response from Pakistan, reliable government sources, who did not wish to be named, said that if the Pakistani media report was true, it would only reinforce the pattern of denial and obfuscation Islamabad has shown since the Mumbai attacks.
“These are trial balloons to see how we react. It’s basically testing the waters. It’s a tactic for derailing any meaningful action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks,” the sources said.
If these reports are true, then Pakistan is finally admitting that Kasab is a Pakistani national who was involved in the Mumbai attacks. “This amounts to buttressing India’s case that the Mumbai conspiracy was hatched and choreographed in Pakistan. They can’t heap all the blame on one individual,” the sources added.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the attacks of this scale and magnitude could not have happened without the involvement of official agencies of Pakistan. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon reinforced this point before a French think tank in Paris recently when he pointed a finger at Pakistani spy agency ISI’s involvement in the attacks.
“In each case the perpetrators planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organizers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI,” he said while alluding to the bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul and the Mumbai mayhem.