Opinion Maker

By Sajjad Shaukat

The true story of the Mumbai Carnage of November 26, 2008 has been proved when a day after the Indian media exposed the name of the terrorist, Wazhul Qamar Khan whose name was included in the list of 50 alleged terrorists given to Pakistan in March. On May 18, this year, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram was compelled to admit that what the media described an embarrassing lapse, but disowned responsibility for preparing the list. Chidambaram said that it was “his ministry that handed over the names to Pakistan in March and made them public recently.” But at the same time, showing self-contradictions, he also acknowledged it as a mistake, while accepting responsibility.  

On the other hand, Pakistan’s security and intelligence agencies were desperately looking for Wazhul Khan and had his name not been made public. But Wazhur Qamar “is living in the suburbs of Mumbai with his family” and “is regularly reports to a court that gave him bail” as reported by The Times of India.

In fact, in consultation with the Indian secret agency, RAW, the list was prepared by Indian Home Ministry which also included the name of Wazhur Qamar Khan who was wanted for his role in bombing of trains in Mumbai in 2003 including the 2002 Mumbai Central station blasts. When Indian media exposed the whereabouts of Wazhur Khan, Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai also acknowledged the blunder, stating: “The Ministry takes responsibility for mistakenly including the name of Wazhur.”

Reports suggest that another most-wanted culprit, Feroz Abdul Khan who is supposed to be hiding in Pakistan has also been found out in India. He was involved in 1993 Mumbai blasts.

However, India has failed in supplying solid proof to Pakistan in relation to Mumbai tragedy except providing a self-fabricated story which was quite fake—full of loopholes, created by RAW. It entails several items such as shirts, trousers, Nestle milk pack, dental gel, knives, pistol, etc. with Pakistani labels of the concerned factories. As a matter of fact, all these items were arranged by RAW, but have still left a number of contradictions, proving the evidence as unauthenticated.

In this respect, Indian investigators had alleged that 10 terrorists who executed Mumbai carnage came in a boat from Karachi and were in contact with the members of the banned Lashker-i-Taiba through phone calls. But a number of questions arise in relation to the so-called links, deliberately entangling Pakistan. First, how it is possible that the militants phoned 100 times inside Pakistan, but they did not call their families? Second, the lonely gunman Ajmal Kasab who was arrested, knew his address and why he did not indicate the names and home addresses of other 9 fugitives with whom he lived for a long time? Third, after the hard journey of more than 50 hours, traveling on the slow moving water, evading 20 coastal guards of Indian Navy, how they reached Mumbai? Fourth, where did they change their muddy shoes and wet dresses? Fifth, how it became possible that they immediately hired a taxi and reached their targets, without taking some rest? Sixth, why the terrorists killed only four people at the Nariman house, sparing the other six guys present there?

Most surprising factor is that during the operation, initially, the number of terrorists was, officially, indicated as 25 which changed to 15 and till the end of Nariman house it was shown as 12, and finally it was announced as 10. Nevertheless, while creating false story so hastily against the alleged involvement of Pakistan, RAW employees, perhaps, forgot the limitation of human beings and natural obstacles in the implementation of Mumbai episode. Besides, Turiya telephone sets used in incident are made in India and their centre is located in Dubai, manned by Indian nationals. Just a few days after the Mumbai tragedy,a report had appeared on several news channels indicating that Indian police arrested some Indian citizens who brought SIM cards and mobile phone cards, used by the terrorists.

As regards Ajmal Kasab, he was tortured by the Indian police and intelligence agencies in order to endorse the Indian false story against Islamabad, while giving statement in an Indian court. Nonetheless, even if he is Pakistani, it does not matter. It should not surprise Indians. America had itself indicated the name of more than 16 persons who had conducted 9/11 catastrophe, saying that most of them belonged to Saudi Arabia. One of the arrested persons, namely Ata was from Egypt. But the United States did not impose undue demands on Saudi Arabia and Egypt due to the fact that these countries were not responsible for the crimes, committed by the non-state actors.

Setting aside the ground realties that Pakistan, itself, is the major victim of terrorism, which has been bearing multiple losses since 9/11, Indian blame game against Islamabad continued during the exchange of information regarding Mumbai mayhem.Rejecting Pakistan’s stand that its government or any official agency is not involved in the Mumbai attacks, presenting one after another list of bogus evidence, New Delhi wanted to make Islamabad accept all other Indian demands since our rulers admitted that Ajmal Kasab is Pakistani national. Pakistan’s governmentnot only submitted its report to India after lodging FIR against the nine suspects, but also took six accused persons into custody. In fact, Islamabad’s admission which had emboldened New Delhi was forced by the US-led some western countries which have continuously been insisting upon our government to “do more” against the militancy in the tribal areas by ignoring internal backlash and sacrifices of our security forces during war on terror.

It is mentionable that the then US former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw who had visited New Delhi and Islamabad in the aftermath of Mumbai catastrophe stressed upon Pakistan to take actions against the banned Jamaatud Dawa and the already banned Lashkar-i-Tayba. Speaking in Indian tune, they also said that the terrorists involved in the Mumbai events came from Pakistan. All these were forced demands of the US-led some western countries which have pro-Indian tilt. In this context, India wanted to avail this opportunity in increasing further pressure on Pakistan so as to force Islamabad to confess that all the terrorists responsible for Mumbai attacks came from Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and its other high officials, while repeating old rhetoric of baseless allegations against Islamabad stated that Pakistan has “epicenter of terrorism” and Islamabad should “end infrastructure of terrorism.”

Hollowness of New Delhi’s allegations and forced admission of our rulers could be gauged from the fact that Pakistan’s Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Nuaman Bashir had remarked that he had no proof that Ajmal Kasab used Pakistani waters to reach India. He further explained, “I do not have any proof…the Indian navy is much larger than ours, and if Ajmal Kasab had gone from here, then what were their coastguards doing, and why they did not stop the terrorists?”

Nevertheless, Mumbai mayhem was planned by RAW to distort the image of Pakistan abroad as well as to manipulate the world phenomena of terrorism against Islamabad.

It is notable that Islamabad had also raised 30 questions in its report, reciprocally seeking information about Indian officials involved in Malay villages and Samjotha Express blasts in which Indian mastermind Lt. Col.Srikant Purohit was found guilty in targeting Muslims—details on the death of Indian Anti-terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare during Mumbai tragedy as he was investigating against Hindus terrorists. In this regard, in the Indian Mail Today, Narayan Rane, an Indian-Hindu leader of the Congress had disclosed on December 16, 2008 that Hindu politicians of India provided logistical and financial support to Hindutva terrorists for killing Karkare.

In the past, Indian Gujrat Chief Minister Narendra Singh Modi had revealed that the Mumbai terror attacks could not have been carried out without internal help, while the Mumbai police chief Hassan Ghafoor had also admitted that two Indians who were arrested by the Indian police had been involved in the Mumbai-terror attacks. Their comments were in sharp contrast with claims of other Indian high officials who hold Pakistan solely responsible for the carnage.

Returning to our earlier discussion, the name of the terrorist, Wazhul Qamar Khan  whose name was included in the list of most wanted fugitives given to Pakistan and acknowledgement of the same by Chidambaram have shownthe true story of the Mumbai Carnage, endorsing the fact that Indian home-grown terrorists—in collusion with RAW were involved in the Mumbai-terror attacks.

Dear readers, if you feel satisfied with our work please donate so we improve upon it further. Your donations are worth a million.