The Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said that the interrogation of Abu Jundal had confirmed that there was “state support” for the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack. He, however, refrained from pointing fingers at any government organisation in Pakistan.
“Jundal’s interrogation has established that Jundal was in the control room. He has also identified the people in the control room. This confirms that there was organised support for the team, which points to some state support for these people,” Mr Chidambaram told reporters here on Wednesday.
He said that Pakistan’s interior minister Mr Rehman Malik had called him and requested that India share information about Jundal. “We will do that in due course,” Mr Chidambaram said. “But I insist that Pakistan keeps its promise and give us the voice samples of all persons in the list we have given them,” he added.
He said that India would track down every single mastermind and accomplice in the 26/11 attack and would continue to exert pressure on Pakistan to hand over the masterminds of 26/11. “We have identified five people we feel are being sheltered in Pakistan and whom Pakistan continues to insist had no role in the Mumbai attack,” he said.
The home minister said that the way the country had gone about tracking and apprehending the people behind the 26/11 carnage had raised its international stature.
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Malik rejects chidambaram remarks
Islamabad, June 27: Pakistan’s interior ministry chief Rehman Malik on Wednesday rejected home minister P. Chidambaram’s assertion of “state support” to the terrorists behind 26/11 massacre, saying ISI was a target of “propaganda campaign”.
“We are proud of our ISI, which is defending Pakistan”, Mr Malik said adding the ISI’s role in the war on terror was “well recognised by everybody” but the spy agency was the target of a propaganda campaign. He repeatedly dismissed assertions by Indian leaders, including Mr Chidambaram, that Pakistani state and non-state actors were involved in the Mumbai attacks and stoutly defended the ISI as an “elite agency”.
Mr Malik also launched a bizarre tirade against India investigations into various terror attacks and also sought to stump the arrest of Jundal. — PTI