Former Pakistan NSA shy of naming state actors
In material terms, Pakistan's former National Security Advisor (NSA) Mahmud Ali Durrani has said nothing new at a conference in New Delhi on Monday on the 26/11 attacks. He stated that the incident was a “classic trans-border terror event”. In other words, the terrorist strike was planned in Pakistan. This much has been maintained by India since the details of the horror began to unfold. Of course, initially Islamabad had denied that the terror attack had any connection with Pakistan, but acknowledged the harsh reality when it was faced with uncontestable facts. The remark's significance lies elsewhere. Durrani was the NSA when the incident was executed in November 2008. He was sacked the following year because he apparently spoke the truth back home to his bosses. Incidentally, he was also the first Pakistani official to admit to terrorist Ajmal Kasab's Pakistani nationality. At the Delhi event, Durrani also said that Pakistan must punish the attack's mastermind Hafiz Saeed and that this terrorist was of no value to Pakistan. Durrani would know what he is speaking about, given that he must be having details of the incident and the fact of Pakistani soil used for the terror strike. His remarks cannot, thus be brushed aside. At the very least, New Delhi can take comfort from the fact that the statement is an admission of the lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) hand — an organisation that Saeed headed and which now lives on under a different nomenclature. And the Pakistani officials, instead of going round the bend underplaying the remark, should seek details from the former NSA and strengthen their case against the terrorist. But will theyIJ They will of course point to the action they have taken against Saeed (they have placed him under house arrest and named him under an anti-terror law). But these are optics. They need to prosecute him.
Durrani has, of course, absolved the Pakistani state of any involvement in the 26/11 incident. He has emphatically said that it had nothing to do with the strike; it didn't even have an inkling, he has claimed. Now this is difficult to digest. Pakistani non-state actors, who have been targeting India, especially by creating unrest in Jammu & Kashmir, are in close touch with Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). In fact, these militant elements are, in Pakistani authorities' eyes, fighting for the ‘rights of Kashmiris' in India, and their stooges in Kashmir are “freedom-fighters” — like the slain terrorist Burhan Wani was. It's impossible to accept that a terror attack of the 26/11 magnitude could have been planned in Pakistan right under the Pakistan Army's and the ISI's nose without their knowledge. Durrani here was playing the role of a good Pakistani who, like all ‘good' Pakistanis, refuses to acknowledge the truth when it comes to the crunch. After all, if Islamabad has nothing to hide, why has it dragged its feet on bringing Saeed to bookIJ The ‘lack of evidence' allegation against India simply does not hold.