A PAKISTANI investigation into the terrorist attacks on Mumbai looked set to enrage India yesterday, after Islamabad claimed that the strike was masterminded beyond its country’s shores.
India’s own investigation, supported by intelligence from the US and UK, had shown that the seaborne attack on its financial capital had been launched from Karachi and that leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group, had orchestrated the operation.
As Pakistan prepares to release its findings into the links between the attack and the 124 militants it has since arrested, one of the country’s most senior diplomats said in London that the investigation showed the strike was planned elsewhere. His comments raise the prospect of a third country’s involvement, or more provocatively, the possibility that the plot was hatched by militants within India.
The report is expected to be released at the weekend or early next week. A key finding that contradicts India’s version of events is likely to raise tension sharply between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
“We have concluded that the attacks were not planned on Pakistani soil,” Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s high commissioner to the UK, told the Financial Times yesterday. Mr Hasan said the attack had no link to the UK, where Pakistani terrorist networks are active.
India said yesterday it had not received any information on the Pakistani investigation. “We have provided Pakistan [all evidence of] the attack and expect them to investigate the matter and inform us,” said Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister.
Pakistani officials said they expected some of the militants arrested in Pakistan to be prosecuted on the basis of the investigation’s findings.
– (Financial Times service)