ISLAMABAD: India’s only evidence against Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed is based on statements given by three accused detained in the Mumbai attack case, claiming that the banned outfit’s leader had overseen their training and urged them in his sermons to carry out attacks.
The sixth dossier on the 26/11 attacks handed over to Pakistan last week, which India said contained ‘solid evidence against Hafiz Saeed’ is a mere reproduction of the already shared confessional accounts of the lone surviving Mumbai attack accused, Ajmal Amir Kasab, and two other accused in the case Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin.
The leading suspect in the Mumbai (Bombay) attacks trial has retracted his confession.
The lawyer for the sole surviving suspected gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, said the entire ‘confession’ was extracted through coercion and torture and has nothing to do with him.
This comes as a massive embarrassment to the Indian authorities and rips their case against Pakistan to shreds. Among other things, the Indian authorities had been harping on about how Qasab had ‘admitted being trained in Pakistan by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the ISI’.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities are not satisfied with the India’s response to Islamabad’s 30 questions seeking more inputs on Mumbai terror attacks as it does not meet their requirements, a media report said on Wednesday.
“We have gone through the document provided by India but it does not meet our requirements,” a senior official in the interior ministry told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
Two public officials – the Navy chief and a deputy attorney general – together have destroyed Rehman Malik’s case of ‘admission of guilt’ in Mumbai attacks. The government has fired the deputy attorney general for taking a stand, but no one in the Pakistani media noticed since it is busy in the latest Pakistani political circus. But it is this story that could unravel this staunchly pro-U.S. setup.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Two developments in Pakistan have thwarted the deliberate effort of Pakistan’s pro-U.S. government to take the Mumbai investigations on a path that leads to placing the blame on the Pakistani military and intelligence.
The two developments, one by a public prosecutor and the other by the Pakistani military, confirms that the Zardari government, and especially his confidant and interior adviser Rehman Malik, deliberately led Pakistan into acquiescence to American and Indian demands by accepting partial responsibility for Mumbai attacks without verifiable evidence. It also raises questions about the motives of this government.
The first development took place on Feb. 18, when Zardari government’s special public prosecutor in the Mumbai attacks Sardar Mohammad Ghazi issued a statement saying Islamabad is formally requesting India to extradite Ajmal Kassab, the alleged lone survivor of the Mumbai attacks. This was a surprising statement considering how the Zardari government unilaterally accepted – on behalf of Pakistan – every single piece of questionable Indian and American ‘evidence’ linking the attacks to elements with past links to Pakistani intelligence.
Sardar’s statement shook the Indians and the Americans, who lobbied hard to ensure Pakistan accepted some responsibility for the attacks as a prelude to implicating Pakistan’s ISI.
Pakistani investigators have yet to independently confirm that Kassab is indeed a Pakistani citizen, or that the person in Indian custody is indeed Ajmal Kassab.
ISLAMABAD: The chief of naval staff (CNS) on Friday demolished the case and contention of the adviser on interior to the prime minister conceding that the main accused and his accomplices of the Mumbai incidents of November 26 last year belonged to Pakistan and they travelled from Karachi.
The CNS, Admiral Noman Bashir said on that no evidence has been provided that Ajmal Kasab had gone to Mumbai from Pakistan while Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik confessed last month that Ajmal Kasab and his nine accomplices travelled from Karachi to undertake the attacks in Mumbai. Interestingly, his statement was a confirmation of the position that India had taken about the case and Indians jubilantly termed it their great diplomatic achievement.
BrassTacks analysis and rebuttal to Rehman Malik’s ‘admission of guilt’ on the Mumbai drama.
On Monday, Feb. 9, FIA, which conducted the investigation under Mr. Malik, said it needed more information from India to take its investigations further. What was the radical thing that happened between Feb. 9 and Feb. 12 that made Mr. Malik not only accept Indian claims but also issue a lot of statements which in some places directly contradict the Indian dossier like the issue of the dinghies? And also contradict FIA’s own earlier findings that a conspiracy was hatched somewhere outside Pakistan? Even the Cabinet’s Defense committee in its last meeting on Feb. 9 urged India to answer all the relevant questions raised by Pakistani investigations. There was no hint in all of these statements that, come weekend, Pakistan will accept the entire set of Indian allegations without any supporting evidence.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—On Feb. 12, Pakistan’s de facto Interior Minister Rehman Malik had claimed in a press conference that Mumbai attacks were partially planned in Pakistan. There are many points that need to be made clear to understand if it was the right time to unveil the half-baked and incomplete Pakistani investigations. It is also time to assess the implications of Mr. Malik’s ‘admission’ of guilt.
Please allow me to voice my regrets over Interior Advisor Rehman Malik’s mea culpa. India couldn’t prove Pakistani role in Mumbai attacks beyond a shadow of doubt, but kudos to our government for doing India’s job for them.
I don’t know who Mr. Malik works for, but he is certainly not working for the supreme interests of Pakistan. He has single-handedly done more damageto Pakistan’s image and sovereignty than what India had been trying to do for almost half a century. He might as well have placed a bull’s eye on Islamabad with a sign in bold letters, ‘Pakistan is a pariah state’.
While he is at it, he might as well hand over Dr. A. Q. Khan to the Mossad, sign the NPT and open the doors of every nuclear facility to IAEA, handover the nukes to the CIA for safekeeping, sign off Sir Creek and Azad Kashmir, disown the Durand Line, forsake the waters of river Sindh, and last but not least, disband all arms of the Pakistani military.
It is preposterous that he was allowed to malign Pakistan’s reputation solely based on the leads and evidence presented by India; which can be best described as flimsy, if not laughable.. I would like to ask, why was he allowed to hold the press conference on an issue that should have been handled by the foreign office to begin with? At least, the foreign office officials would have used the results of the investigation as a bargaining chip. Isn’t it high time the fame-hungry army of government ministers and political appointees let the foreign office experts earn their pay for a change?
On a side note, if Mr. Malik or his patrons are hoping to use his damaging confessions to marginalize Pakistan’s sole foreign spying agency, they should know the nation wouldn’t allow the vindictive politicians to steamroll its last line of defense.
The Times of India claims, ‘Sources from the intelligence agencies said that underworld don Chhota Shakeel, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, has been given a contract to kill Kasab. According to an intelligence sources, the plot came to light on January 29.’
PKKH originally reported ‘Ajmal Kassab’s’ death on January 27th, putting the Indian authorities on the backfoot. The denials came thick and fast. The Times of India even went to the extent of producing an old photograph of Kassab and, bizzarely, claiming to have ‘nailed Pakistan’s lies’.
Despite the denial by Indian authorities, PKKH understands through its sources in Mumbai that the lone gunman arrested in the wake of the Mumbai attacks and identified since as ‘Amir Ajmal Kassab’ has been dead for over two weeks.
The Mumbai Police had originally intended to announce his death this week – in a supposed ’shootout’ at the Arthur road jail – pinning the blame on ‘Pakistan-controlled gangsters’ with links to Dawood Ibrahim.
If Ajmal Kassab is indeed alive, as the Indian authorities continue to try and convince us, why has he not been allowed access to? Bring him in front of the media, let the truth be known.
‘Nailing Pakistan’s claims that Ajmal Kasab was ‘dead’, TV channel Times Now has got access to the latest pictures of the lone surviving terrorist of the November 26, Mumbai attacks.’ – it says.
Strange that, when on the very same page they admit “There is, however, no clear indication about when this picture was taken or where, because the terrorist is not dressed in any prison gear, casually clad in a t-shirt and brown pants. ” [link]
So basically, the photograph labelled as ‘latest’ by TOI could well have been taken weeks ago, if not months (if reports of his kidnapping from Nepal in 2006 are to be believed.)
Times of India had previously linked PKKH to the ISI – claiming that ‘Reports which security sources suspect to have been planted by Pakistani official agencies, Islamabad alleges that captured Mumbai terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab is actually dead.’
Needless to say, it is the latest example of extremely poor and lazy journalism by a publication that is read by millions in India and is one of the leading newspapers worldwide in terms of circulation figures.
It seems as if the Indian media has taken a leaf out of Bollywood’s book – which thrives on the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or imaginative situations / activities – in coming up with ‘reports’ that are far, far from reality.
UPDATE: CNN IBN with the same claims as TOI – Call it an ‘Exclusive!’
CNN-IBN are reporting on the same story, and claiming that the above photograph has been ‘exclusively made available to CNN-IBN by highly placed sources in the Mumbai’. LINK
Bizzarely, both the reports in TOI and CNN-IBN have failed to put a date on this photograph, which means they could well have been taken immediately after Kassab’s ‘arrest’.
Further to PKKH’s exclusive report last week, we can now confirm that the Mumbai Police have once again failed to produce Ajmal ‘Kassab’ in court today (February 2nd, 2009).
The Mumbai Police has previously failed to produce Kassab in court TWICE – on December 11th and more recently on January 19th.
Indian authorities have repeatedly denied media access to Ajmal Kassab and have turned down requests from the Pakistani authorities for a DNA sample for Kassab. This is consistent with the inability of the Indian authorities to provide any information (finger prints, DNA) of the other nine alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai Attacks.
PKKH reported earlier after recieving information from sources in Mumbai, that Ajmal Kassab no longer exists. [Read Full Report]
It is also worthwhile to note that during January 15th to 20th, a number of stories were planted in the Indian media by the Indian security agencies in an attempt to sound out the possibility of announcing Kassab’s death in a “Pakistani controlled gang murdering Kassab” scenario – that is, the second episode of Mumbai drama.
In response to PakistanKaKhudaHafiz (PKKH)’s exclusive report about Kassab’s death, the Maharashtra government on Friday said the lone terrorist arrested in 26/11 Mumbai attacks is very much alive.
“Kassab is in Mumbai police custody and very much alive,” state Home Minister Jayant Patil said. [Rediff]
In addition to the Home Minister, the Mumbai Police Commissioner also denied the reports of Kassab’s death.
“Kassab is safe in our custody,” Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor told PTI.
PKKH understands that Mumbai Police had originally intended to announce his death this week – in a supposed ‘shootout’ at the Arthur road jail – pinning the blame on ‘Pakistan-controlled gangsters’ with links to Dawood Ibrahim.
The lone captured terrorist and alleged Pakistani citizen Ajmal Kassab is dead, sources tell PKKH. Whether he was killed in custody immediately after the Mumbai attacks or in recent days is yet to be confirmed.
On Monday 19th January, Kassab was remanded in police custody until February 2nd. It is important to note that he was not brought to court on this occasion.
Earlier, police in Mumbai had backed off of plans to produce Kasab in court on Thursday December 11th for a routine hearing, citing security concerns.
Indian authorities have repeatedly denied media access to Ajmal Kassab and have turned down requests from the Pakistani authorities for a DNA sample for Kassab. This is consistent with the inability of the Indian authorities to provide any information (finger prints, DNA) of the other nine alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai Attacks.
Due to the nature of this information and the lack of verifiable sources, we are not able to confirm or dismiss the reports of Kassab’s death at the moment. However, India’s reluctance to allow the Pakistani authorities access to Kassab and refusal to carry out a joint investigation certainly raises questions about the authenticity of Indian claims.
On a separate note, the leading Dutch daily newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’ reports that the Indian authorities will be investigating the role of right-wing politicians in Mumbai massacre. It also reports that Ajmal Kassab was already under arrest at the time of the Mumbai attacks, for an unrelated crime. Below is a rough translation from the article in ‘De Telegraaf’:
“There are indications that Indian politicians and Hindu extremists are behind the attacks in Mumbai last November. It is thought that statesmen of Maharashtra wanted to get rid of the head of the anti-terrorism bureau, Hermant Karkare, whilst putting the blame on Pakistan as reported by Radiance, a weekly magazine. Hemant Karkare was one of the 163 victims killed during the attacks. Karkare was investigating the hindu terrorist group Hindutva suspected to be planning an attack and had received death threats. An independent investigation is underway to find the politicians who demanded Karkare’s resignation and which of them has provided financial means for the attacks. Remarkably, the only gunman who was captured alive, a Pakistani, was already serving a sentence in jail for another crime.”
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has criticized the Indian government for asking Pakistan to accept the statement of the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks as evidence, the Daily Times reported on Tuesday.
‘There is no law in our country that would consider the statement of an arrested person before a top-level police official as evidence,’ he was quoted as saying.
‘Despite the situation, we are trying to convince Pakistan to consider the statement evidence. This is very much contradictory,’ continued Modi. [source] [reaction]
In a stunning development, Anita Uddaiya, the woman who apparently saw the six terrorists involved in the November 26 terror attacks land at Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade hours before the attacks, claims she was taken to the US and questioned by investigating agencies there.
Uddaiya went missing on Sunday morning and returned to Mumbai on Wednesday around 1.30 am.
“I was informed that the (US) officers who questioned me about the Mumbai attacks here earlier would take me to America. They came on Sunday morning and had taken me to America in a flight,” Uddaiya said.
Anita Udaiyya does not possess a passport or travel documents. Whether she was taken to the US on a commercial flight or a special US Air Force jet is yet to be known.
“Since we were informed about Uddiaya’s America visit, we sat with her throughout the night waiting for the American investigators. Nobody turned up till morning 5 am. Uddaiya went to toilet from where she was whisked away by the investigators,” said Madhusudhan Nair, president of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar slum area where Uddaiya resides.
Uddaiya said four officers were inside the posh vehicle and one of them knew Hindi.
Former President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that surgical strikes cannot be carried out against Pakistan and if such an eventuality arises the country is prepared to respond with “full force.”
The country would respond to any eventuality with full force, he said ahead of his departure for the US to deliver guest lectures.
Musharraf said threatening statements would only create tensions and people should not make such statements for “political expediency”.
“Political disputes like Palestine and Kashmir have to be resolved. Israel has adopted a regressive policy to deal with the issue by attacking Palestinians in Gaza. They are deteriorating the situation,” he said.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Mr. Prime Minister, your national security adviser has screwed up big time. His strange moves and actions prove that people appointed by President Zardari have brought Pakistani diplomacy down to its knees in the past six weeks. This was by design and not just incompetence.
Your prompt action of sacking Mr. M. A. Durrani restored the confidence of Pakistanis.
His crime is engineering his leaks in a way that make everyone think that Kassab’s links to Pakistan confirm Pakistan’s culpability in the crime.
Durrani’s Sacking Reveals How Pakistan Is Penetrated At The Top
M. A. Durrani was busy leaking information to embarrass Pakistan internationally. He was part of an influential group in Islamabad that worked overtime to ensure Pakistan accepted blame for Mumbai and initiated action against the military and ISI without verifying the so-called evidence. Mr. Durrani says his leaks had the blessings of President Zardari. Who are they working for? Alarmingly, Pakistan’s security stands breached at the highest levels in the capital, where shady individuals are working for foreign interests with impunity. It is time for a major purge to cleanse Pakistani government and politics of foreign assets. Mr. Durrani should be debriefed as to whose interests he was serving in his sensitive position.
Why is the Zardari government acting so apologetic and condemning Pakistan in the process? We don’t trust the Indians and they don’t trust us. That’s the way it is. The Mumbai attacks are not about the identity of Kassab. It is about how he reached there and how the attacks conveniently meet the interests of anti-Pakistan elements in India. It is time Pakistani officials started asking India the tough questions and expose what New Delhi is hiding from its own people.
After a long time, AR Antulay has spoken, and he has shaken the Mumbai Police version of the 26th November terror attack.
If there is a question mark over who sent Karkare literally to his death, and this is what the Minority Affairs Minister essentially said, than there is a question mark about Kasab’s statement that Ismail and he killed Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kaamte — which means there is a question mark over the entire Police version of the 26th November attack as such.
In what is clearly a blow to India’s case against Pakistan, Interpol today has confirmed that India has so far not provided any real evidence to back up their allegations that the Mumbai attackers came from Pakistan.
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble, who is in Islamabad, said its only knowledge of what happened had come from the media.
Pakistan says it also has had no firm information from Delhi, and that India has not provided ample evidence for arrest of any accused of the Mumbai attacks.
India claims Pakistani militants carried out the attacks, which left more than 170 people dead. Only one of the 10 gunmen, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, survived and he is in Indian custody.
On Monday India handed a letter to Pakistan it says was written by Mr Qasab, confirming he is Pakistani and asking for Islamabad’s help.
Earlier, the FBI had also rejected Indian claims that Pakistan’s Intelligence Agencies were involved in the Mumbai Attacks.
With India fast losing ground on its campaign to get Pakistan listed as a Terrorist state, there is a serious possibility of its Air Force attempting to carry out ‘surgical strikes’ in a desperate bid to ease the pressure on its government from right wing Hindu Nationalist groups calling for an all out war on Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Armed Forces continue to remains on a high alert to face any aggression from India.
Investigate first before pointing fingers: China to India
Both China and Iran have come out to support Pakistan’s stance at this critical time.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said that the question of “where the terrorists are from” is a matter that will be known after proper investigations. He was replying to a question about India’s concerns that terrorists in the Mumbai attack came from Pakistan and Islamabad’s refusal to accept it.
Earlier, India had complained about leading Iranian news agencies being largely sympathetic towards Pakistan and insinuating that India has been acting under the influence of the US.
It is at times like these that you know who your friends are, and they’re not in the US or UK.
You had one Mumbai, we have a ‘Mumbai’ every day.
Kasab’s letter wouldn’t be accepted as evidence in any court: Ayaz Amir
Pakistani Journalist Ayaz Amir said on CNN-IBN today that the letter given to Pakistan which India says is Kasab’s confession, wouldn’t even stand in Indian courts. India doesn’t seem serious to get to the bottom of who actually carried out the Mumbai Attacks. They’re more interested in putting International pressure on Pakistan.
Despite harping on about having given Pakistan proof – the reality is that the ‘evidence’ so far presented amounts to ONE letter, a confession statement given to the police, which wouldn’t even be accepted as evidence in Indian courts as per the Indian Penal code.
So happy are the Indians with Mr. Sharif that they ordered their ambassador to travel to Lahore and personally deliver Manmohan Singh’s regards to him. Meanwhile, the disgruntled former premier continues to play the ‘Daughters Game’, distracting Pakistanis as the nation prepares for a possible war.
A MUMBAI-BASED lawyer has moved the Bombay High Court, seeking an independent investigation into the circumstances under which Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare was killed.
Amin Solkar filed a public interest litigation (PIL) on December 11, mainly because Karkare was investigating the countrywide Hindutva terror network. The PIL has asked the court to appoint a special investigating team under its supervision.
Karkare had unearthed an alleged Hindutva terror plot while probing the Malegaon blasts case. The Muslims in Malegaon have always claimed Karkare was killed by Hindutva militants and not by Qasab.
Solkar’s petition is expected to be heard on Thursday. The PIL wants former CM of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, to file an affidavit disclosing the names of political leaders who wanted Karkare out of the ATS.
Former revenue minister Narayan Rane will also have some explanations to do. “A week after 26/11, he said some politicians had provided logistical and financial support for the attack,” claimed Solkar.
Rane, incensed on being denied the Chief Minister’s post following Vilasrao Deshmukh’s resignation, had alleged that terrorists were getting “logistical” support from politicians. He, however, had not revealed any names.
ISLAMABAD: India’s only evidence against Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed is based on statements given by three accused detained in the Mumbai attack case, claiming that the banned outfit’s leader had overseen their training and urged them in his sermons to carry out attacks.
I don’t know who Mr. Malik works for, but he is certainly 
So basically, the photograph labelled as ‘latest’ by TOI could well have been taken weeks ago, if not months (if reports of his 
In a stunning development, Anita Uddaiya, the woman who apparently saw the six terrorists involved in the November 26 terror attacks land at Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade hours before the attacks, claims she was taken to the US and questioned by investigating agencies there.
