Islamabad rejects its role in Mumbai attacks

Islamabad on Thursday offered India for joint investigation over Abu Jandal’s role in Mumbai attacks, clarifying that there were no state actors involved in planning and coordinating the carnage.

Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani while speaking to the media after holding a meeting with his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai said that he strongly rejected any insinuation of any involvement of any state actors in acts of militancy in India.

In order to bolster a peace dialogue undermined by fresh wave of claims over the Mumbai attacks and political flux in Pakistan, the top civil servants of the foreign ministries held two days of talks in New Delhi.

Speaking to the occasion, the Pakistani civil servant stressed that bringing those guilty for the Mumbai carnage to justice will be the biggest confidence-building measure between the two neighboring countries.

He was of the opinion that the meeting focused on ways of reducing mutual distrust between New Delhi and Islamabad.

The Indian agencies recently apprehended Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, considering a key handler for the Mumbai attackers who were allegedly members of the banned Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

India said that the arrested commander confessed assisting to coordinate the deadly attack from a command post in Karachi, the metropolis city of Sindh. Considering his testimony, India blamed that Pakistani state institutions were involved in coordinating and planning the attack.

Earlier on Wednesday, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said, “It is no longer possible to deny that though the incident happened in Mumbai, there was a control room in Pakistan before and during the incident. It is clear that state actors were there”.

Although Islamabad indicted seven persons for their alleged role in the Mumbai attacks, their trail, which began in 2009, has been weighed down by postponements.

It is vital to highlight here that India suspended a four-year peace process with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks but it was resumed in February 2011.

In joint-statement of the two countries, the participants informed the media that a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two states was now scheduled for September this year.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=28237

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jul 5 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.