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26/11 chargesheet – Pak conspirators nailed |
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After three months of strenuous hard work, investigators produced a voluminous 11,280-page chargesheet filed in a court on Feb 25 against the Pakistani conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist carnage. That it was largely an operation planned and perpetrated by the militants based in Pakistan is borne out from the fact that as many as 35 of the accused mentioned in the charge-sheet are Pakistanis including two Pakistani army officers, a Colonel and an unnamed Major General. Though it is yet to be established whether these two officers named in the conversation by those who took two Mumbai hotels and Nariman House under siege with their Pakistani handlers, were serving Pakistani officers or not, at least one of the two has been identified as Col. Sadatullah, allegedly heading the Special Communication Organisation in Rawalpindi. Though the chargesheet does not mention the ISI, it is worth noting that some 80 per cent of the ISI staff is on deputation from the Pakistan armed services and it will not be surprising if Col. Sadatullah and the unnamed ‘Major General Saheb” were ISI handlers of the LeT which masterminded the operation.
Pakistan has only admitted that the 26/11 was “partly” planned from its soil but it cannot be expected to admit the role of its official agencies. However, it is well known that the ISI is constantly engaged in covert operations against India and the terrorist groups which have mushroomed in Pakistan, especially the outfits such as the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed are on the payroll of the ISI which has huge sums of money at its command to fund terrorist operations in India.
In a significant co-incidence, the two cases – one filed by the Mumbai Police and the other expected to be filed by Pakistan against the six accused which are under FIA remand-will run concurrently. Many new pieces of information may tumble out as the cases proceed which will further expose the Pak hand behind the Mumbai attacks. With President Zardari already overwhelmed by problems at home – a brewing political crisis after the Supreme Court, allegedly at the behest of Zardari, barred the Sharif brothers from elections and the militancy in its restive tribal areas - diplomatic pressure will increase from India and the international community if his Government tries to whitewash the charges against the accused and use its leverage to have them a clean chit from the court. Pakistan is perhaps planning that it will allow the cases against the arrested to drag on for a while so that anger in India dies down. This weeks when the dates of Lok Sabha elections are likely to be announced, the entire political leadership in India would have its attention focused on the poll and the 26/11 case and the accusations against the Pakistan Government would take a back seat notwithstanding the fact that terrorism would a the major plank in the election campaign of political parties to win the seats.
Much, however, depends on the support India continues to get from US President Obama. Both Washington and New Delhi find themselves on the common wicket insofar as the jihadi campaign of the Pakistani militants is concerned. Both India and the US forces in Afghanistan are battling the same enemy- militants in – on the western and eastern fronts of Pakistan. The jihadi campaign on Pakistan’s western border with Afghanistan serves New Delhi’s strategic interests. With the attention of the militants focused on fighting the Government and the US forces in Afghanistan and the US continuing to launch drone missile attacks on them, India is relatively safe from the terrorist attacks. In fact, it is notable that the number of terrorist attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere has come down ever since the jihadi campaign in Pakistan’s restive north-west such as Bajaur, Waziristan and Swat Valley has intensified. Islamabad is trying to take advantage of this US dilemma and seeking to convince America that with Pakistan’s own military resources stretched it could focus more attentively on fighting Islamic fundamentalists on its western border if the US helps resolve the Kashmir problem and Pakistan is able to relieve its forces from the Kashmir border. But, the US is aware of the Indian sensitivities to third party intervention in Kashmir and that is why the mandate of Obama’s special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, was not extended to resolving disputes between India and Pakistan.
With the Manmohan Singh Government entering the lame duck period after the last session of Parliament, any new initiative Pakistan may have in mind to mend its forces with India will have to wait until the new Government takes shape in New Delhi after May-June. It would be advisable for the Pakistan Government to demonstrate its sincerity even at this late stage and nab the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks so that it man deals with the new Indian Government with a better image which is currently stained with the blood of the victims of the Mumbai attacks.
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