Pakistan’s ex-26/11 investigator tells home truths about Mumbai terror

With Pakistan dilly-dallying on the trial of the 26/11 accused, here is a disclosure that should prod Islamabad to stop hiding behind legal subterfuge and spur the justice for victims of the Mumbai carnage. In an article published in Pakistan’s leading daily ‘Dawn’, Tariq Khosa, the former DG of Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan, has said that the deadly terror attacks targeting Mumbai in 2008 was planned and launched from the Pakistani soil. “Pakistan has to deal with the Mumbai mayhem, planned and launched from its soil,” he writes. “The entire state security apparatus must ensure that the perpetrators and masterminds of the ghastly terror attacks are brought to justice. The case has lingered on for far too long.”

Mr Khosa’s article corroborates India’s case, saying Kasab was a Pakistani and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists who attacked Mumbai were actually trained near Thatta in Sindh. “Third, the fishing trawler used by the terrorists for hijacking an Indian trawler in which they sailed to Mumbai was brought back to harbour, then painted and concealed. It was recovered by the investigators and connected to the accused.

“Fourth, the engine of the dinghy abandoned by the terrorists near Mumbai harbour contained a patent number through which the investigators traced its import from Japan to Lahore and then to a Karachi sports shop from where an LeT-linked militant purchased it along with the dinghy. The money trail was followed and linked to the accused who was arrested.”

“Fifth, the ops room in Karachi, from where the operation was directed, was also identified and secured by the investigators. The communications through Voice over Internet Protocol were unearthed.

“Sixth, the alleged commander and his deputies were identified and arrested. Seventh, a couple of foreign-based financiers and facilitators were arrested and brought to face trial,” Mr. Khosa said.

In the recent bilateral talks held between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan in Ufa, India had asked for the voice sample of Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the chief architect and perpetrator of the Mumbai terror. Pakistan has yet to hand over to India voice sample of eight persons accused of conspiracy in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Mr Khosa’s article is an unflinching indictment of Pakistan’s dilatory tactics that has prevented the prosecution of perpetrators of the barbaric 26/11 terror attacks. It’s time that Pakistan’s rulers squarely face up to the costs of endless equivocation that has not only frosted its relations with India, but has plunged the people of Pakistan into an endless mayhem of violence unleashed by militants. Here is the big question posed by Mr Khosa to his own country and its powers-that-be: “Are we as a nation prepared to muster the courage to face uncomfortable truths and combat the demons of militancy that haunt our land?”

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