London: Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in preparations for the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, according to classified Indian government documents.
According to the Guardian, a 109-page report into the interrogation of Pakistani-American militant David Headley makes detailed claims of ISI support for the attacks.
In the documents, Headley is said to have described meetings between ISI, Pakistani military intelligence service and senior militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
He claims that a key motivation for the ISI in aiding the attacks was to bolster militant organisations with strong links to Pakistan.
The Pakistani-American, who undertook surveillance of the targets in Mumbai for the operation, also claims that at least two of his missions were partly paid for by the ISI and that he regularly reported to the agency.
"The ISI … had no ambiguity in understanding the necessity to strike India," Headley is reported to have said.
"The aim of the agency was controlling further split in the Kashmir-based outfits, providing them a sense of achievement and shifting … the theatre of violence from the domestic soil of Pakistan to India," he added.
However, the documents suggest that some senior ISI officials may have been unaware at least of the scale and ambition of the operation before it was launched.
The Pakistan government has repeatedly denied involvement of any security official in the Mumbai attacks.
Meanwhile, an ISI spokesman said that the accusations of the agency’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks are “baseless”.
The attacks, which drew widespread condemnation across the world, began on November 26, 2008, and lasted until November 29, killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308.
The terrorists had targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a cafe, a hospital and the main railway station in Mumbai.
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant organization, considered a terrorist organization by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, among others.
The Indian Government had said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers were in Pakistan.