ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s interior ministry chief Rehman Malik rejected home minister P Chidambaram’s assertion of “state support” to the terrorists behind 26/11 massacre, saying ISI was a target of “propaganda campaign”.
“We are proud of our ISI, which is defending Pakistan,” Malik said adding the ISI’s role in the war on terror was “well recognised by everybody” but the spy agency was the target of a propaganda campaign.
He repeatedly dismissed assertions by Indian leaders, including Chidambaram, that Pakistani state and non-state actors were involved in the Mumbai attacks and stoutly defended the ISI as an “elite agency”.
Chidambaram today said there was clearly state support to the terrorists responsible for the 26/11 massacre in Mumbai.
“When I say, state actors, at the moment, I am not pointing my finger at any particular agency. But clearly there was state support or state actors’ support for the 26/11 massacre,” he said.
His comments came in the backdrop of the arrest and interrogation of LeT handler Abu Jundal, who was in the “control room” in Pakistan giving directions to the ten terrorists who attacked Mumbai in 2008.
Malik also launched a bizarre tirade against India investigations into various terror attacks and also sought to stump the arrest of Jundal.
“Now things are getting clarified. Who knows that there was a sting operation by somebody from India?” Malik told a news conference at the Interior Ministry this afternoon. He however did not elaborate what he meant by “sting operation”.
Referring to Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, and two other Indian suspects linked to the Mumbai attacks? Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed? Malik said: “If the three people can come to Pakistan they can mix up with the people here. They can generate the resources and then they go back and the Mumbai (attacks) happen. So any reasonable investigator will be forced to think”.
Speaking against the backdrop of revelations by Jundal about the planning and execution of the Mumbai attacks, Malik called on Indian authorities to provide detailed information about the terror suspect so that Pakistan could take necessary action.
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