|
Pak U-Turn on Kasab - Accepts Him As Son of Soil |
 |
After over a month of lies and denials, confronted with a dossier on the involvement of Pakistan-based terrorist groups in the Mumbai attacks and a possible complicity of the Pakistani establishment itself, as well as American pressure, Islamabad has been left with no option but to concede that Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani national. This, by implication, is an admission that the plot for Mumbai blasts was hatched on Pakistani soil and those who masterminded it were Pakistanis. The refusal of Pakistan to act against them even after the UN Security Council resolution, is a proof of the official patronage they enjoy.
Islamabad is still not ready to authenticate the Pak nationality of the nine others killed or the contention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Government machinery in Pakistan backed the terrorist operation.
In a well thought-out and meticulously worked out policy, Pakistani leaders, right from President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani down to Foreign Minister Qureshi and Information Minister Sherry Rehman, have been rejecting the Pak nationality of Kasab The whistle was blown first by National Security Adviser Mehmud Durrani who had to pay the price with his job. But the 70 page dossier, prepared with the help of inputs provided by the FBI, and based on the interrogation of Kasab (which contained details of how he and his other nine cohorts were trained at LeT camps and the photographs of the weapons and other Pak-manufactured items of daily use such as shaving cream and wheat flour found on the hijacked Kuber boat,) left the Pakistanis with no way but to accept the antecedents of the lone surviving Mumbai attacker.
There were dozens of pointers to Kasab’s Pak origin which were hitherto rejected by Pakistan. Kasab himself had said he hailed from Faridkot village in Punjab. The Dawn of Pakistan and the OBSERVER of London sent their investigating teams which came back with the confirmation that what Kasab said was right. A Pakistani daily managed to find the father of Kasab who confirmed that Kasab was his son, and had fled home after, being very poor, he could not by him new clothes on Id. The British paper even managed to trace his election registration number. The Maulvis of a local mosque in Faridkot too confirmed to Kasab living in the village. Even the Opposition PML[N] leader Nawaz Sharif said he himself had got it checked that Kasab lived in the village, adding further that the intelligence agents had virtually cordoned off his village and were not allowing any outsiders to go in. The latest report has it that his parents have gone missing, ostensibly taken away by the ISI from the prying eyes of the Press.
Now that Pakistan has decided to own Kasab, the next step for it would be to either extradite the masterminds of the Mumbai terror plot to India or at least allow Indian investigators to interrogate them in Pakistan. Pakistan is so far hiding behind a technical issue that it has no extradition treaty with India. But, as pointed out by the External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon, Pakistan is signatory to several counter-terrorism UN conventions as well as a SAARC treaty to combat terrorism. All that is required is political will to hand them over. But, Pakistan’s earlier record would hardly inspire confidence in New Delhi. In the past, on several occasions, India had passed on to Pakistan the list of over forty Most Wanted Men such as JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar and the former Mumbai don, Dawood Ibrahim. But, invariably Pakistan rejected the demand. Pakistan is not ready to hand them over because their interrogation would expose the official complicity of Pakistan in the campaign of terrorism against India.
However, if New Delhi can maintain the coercive diplomatic pressure, there is a possibility of Pakistan moving a bit. The hopes are raised because of the involvement of the US whose six nationals were also killed. This has obliged the FBI to step in and demand the interrogation or extradition of the masterminds of the conspiracy. The outgoing US Ambassador David Mulford has admitted that the dossier prepared by India on the involvement of Pak-based terrorists is credible. The visits of US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Boucher, to Islamabad followed by Vice-President-elect Joseph Biden and earlier of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen are pointers of the interest and concern being shown by Washington to ensure that Pakistan fully cooperates with India and the US in bringing the Mumbai mayhem planners to book.
|
