[1]Abu Jundal
Armed with Abu Jundal’s disclosure statement that ISI officers were directing the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks from a Karachi control room, in a significant move India has for the first time decided to directly blame Pakistan at international forums for the Mumbai carnage.
This decision, sources said, was taken at the highest level now that there is evidence “state players” like the ISI, a Pakistan government agency, was behind the funding and planning of 26/11. The first indication of this came Wednesday when home minister P. Chidambaram became the first top government functionary to say there was clearly state support to the terrorists in the 26/11 massacre.
“When I say state actors, at the moment I am not pointing my finger at any particular agency. But clearly there was state support or state actors’ support for the 26/11 massacre,” Mr Chidambaram said at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram.
Till now India always adopted a very cautious approach, hinting only indirectly at Pakistan’s support in the Mumbai terror attacks. “So far we have only been saying it is suspected some state actors had a role in the incident or that the attacks were engineered from Pakistan. But now that there is concrete evidence to confirm the role of a government agency, we will go all out to put Pakistan on the defensive,” a senior official said.
In fact, Pakistan too so far has strongly denied any role of a “state player” in 26/11, with even interior minister Rehman Malik describing Ajmal Kasab as a “non-state actor”. While Mr Malik on Wednesday again rubbished Abu Jundal’s claims, top Indian intelligence officials say it will be extremely difficult for Pakistan to ignore the evidence now.
“The government has decided to go very aggressive in highlighting Pakistan’s involvement,” an official added.
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