India is not in a mood to let the Mumbai probe go in a smooth fashion. Earlier, on the request of Pakistan to provide necessary information regarding the incident, India has been sharing the information with Pakistan in bits and pieces. As a result, fourth folder has been handed over to Pakistan few days back. If the information was provided to Pakistan in one go, the results of the investigation could have been much different. Besides, India has been trying to create all sorts of hurdles in the court proceedings.
For example, A key witness in the 26/11 attacks case who had given statement against accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed at the trial failed to appear before the court on 28 August 2009 with the prosecution saying that he was “missing”, the Indian Express of 28 August 2009 reported. In his previous statement, the witness Nurudin Sheikh, told the court that the accused – Faheem and Sabauddin – had met him in Nepal and they discussed the maps of some locations in Mumbai. Special Public Prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam told the court that Crime Branch officials had gone to the witness’s residence, but his wife had said that Sheikh had left home early morning, saying that he had to go to the court. This clearly indicates that after obtaining the initial statement, the witness has deliberately been sent underground to create a delay in the judicial proceedings.
Despite Pakistan’s repeated demands, India has failed to supply solid information in relation to the culprits of Mumbai mayhem which occurred on November 26 last year. Instead of providing any evidence, New Delhi has only been propagating that the gunmen who conducted terrorist events in Mumbai came from Pakistan. Surprisingly, on July 21, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon ruled out talking to Pakistan on any issue other than terrorism. Shankar further explained, “Our only issue with Pakistan is terrorism. We demand the perpetrators of terror be brought to justice” and Pakistan should “end infrastructure of terrorism on its soil.” It reminds the statement of PM Singh who had remarked on January 6 this year that Pakistan was using terrorism as state policy. Indian contradictory strategy could be judged from the opposite statements of some other important Indian personalities. For instance on February 8, Gujrat Chief Minister Narendra Modi revealed that the Mumbai terror attacks could not have been carried out without internal help from India. On February 12, the Mumbai police Chief Hassan Ghafoor also admitted that two Indians who were arrested by the Indian police had been involved in the Mumbai carnage.
Confused statements by the Indian high officials show that New Delhi has been making deliberate efforts to entangle Pakistan in the Mumbai tragedy through fabricated stories and India is not serious in Mumbai probe. The aim is to conceal the involvement of Indian terrorists and the role of its secret agency RAW which is behind Mumbai drama. During attacks in Mumbai, the death of Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare left sufficient proof that Indian intelligence agencies had themselves planned the scheme. Narayan Rane, an Indian-Hindu leader of the Congress, disclosed on December 16, 2008 that Hindu politicians provided logistical and financial support to Hindutva terrorists for killing Karkare. While, Indian Minority Affairs Minister Abdul Rahman Antulay who had changed his statement after pressure from Congress had clearly revealed in the Lok Sabha that the killing of Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Karkare in Mumbai was a conspiracy, saying that Karkare was assassinated owing to his leading role in the investigation against Hindus regarding the 2006 Malegaon bombings which killed eight people outside a mosque. He further elaborated, “Anyone trying to go to the roots of terror has always been a target”, calling for a separate inquiry into Karkare’s death.
In wake of a continued debate and rising tension between the two South Asian nuclear states in connection with the culprits of Mumbai tragedy, Pakistan has proved itself as a responsible state actor. On February 12, 2009, Islamabad not only submitted its report to India after lodging FIR against the nine suspects and taking six accused persons into custody, but also repeatedly offered joint investigation to get hold of the real culprits. The fact of the matter remains that Indians were well-aware that any joint inquiry would have exposed the identity of Hindu terrorists and Indian militants. It would have also exposed the killing of Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Karkare during Mumbai events and the arrested Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit who was found involved in supplying high-grade explosives to the Hindu fundamentalists—played a key role in setting the Samjhota express on fire.
Setting aside Islamabad’s offer for joint investigation, New Delhi has also failed in providing reply to the questions asked by Pakistan in relation to the death of Karkare, progress regarding investigation of Purohit—and particularly about the first statement of the lonely-arrested gunman, Ajmal Kasab regarding the Mumbai events. Notably, in the recent past, Ajmal Kasab had disclosed in an Indian court that the police had forced him to give statement against Pakistan and ISI. He has also been forced to change his previous statement. On July 20, he confessed in the special court that he is Pakistani, and that five men who were involved in the Mumbai carnage also includes key operatives of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT). Backing out of his initial statement clearly proves that Indian intelligence agencies, especially RAW has kept him under continuous torture and thus forced him to show the involvement of Pakistan and ISI. The main aim behind is to conceal the real culprits who are Indian terrorists trained by RAW. In its latest dossier, sent to Islamabad, New Delhi has declared Hafiz Saeed as mastermind behind the incident, while earlier; Kasab was announced as the mastermind. Nevertheless it is another major contradiction in the matter.
As a matter of fact New Delhi wanted to achieve a number of goals through self-arranged Mumbai tragedy as its aftermath proved. First of all India suspended the Indo-Pak composite dialogue in order to use the incident to avoid the solution of Kashmir. Second, it tried its best to get Pakistan declared a terrorist state with the help of US-led western countries.
Third, it intended to isolate Pakistan diplomatically in the comity of nations. Fourth, India wanted to distort the image of Islamabad through a propaganda campaign that Pakistan is officially sponsoring terrorism in India and Afghanistan. After its failure in isolating Pakistan diplomatically, at present its leaders have been acting upon a hollow strategy which is based on opposition for the sake of opposition in order to conceal the Indian home-grown terrorism and the hand of RAW in Mumbai tragedy. Waqar Ahmed
Courtesy: Pakistan Daily