The spin Pakistan investigators have put on Mumbai attacks of last November that the trail leads to Bangladesh and to the banned HuJI-B, appears aimed at deflecting international pressure to bring to book the so called non-state Pak actors who had perpetrated the crime that resulted in the death of nearly 120 persons.
Interestingly, the Pak claim appeared in the Dawn on the very day Indian papers carried a photo of surviving gun man Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, who, according to some earlier reports, is either dead or not alive at all. A leading Indian TV channel, News X on Thursday telecast interviews with a Pakistan businessman who had sold ‘Yamaha’ engine that was fitted to the MV Kuber, the vessel, the militants had used to reach Mumbai’s Colaba sea front on November 26.
PUSHES DHAKA ON BACK FOOT
A western diplomat, who is closely following the case, remarked that Pakistan was refusing to get out of its ‘habitual’ denial mode. ‘DNA tests have established the Pakistan link conclusively. So this invention of Bangladesh connection makes no sense. It could at best be an attempt to push Dhaka to the back foot and settle some old scores with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’, he said.
This is for the second time the needle of suspicion is sought to be pointed at Bangladesh. The first attempt was made soon after the iconic Taj and Oberai hotels were seized by LeT terrorists for close to 70 hours.
Around December 15, reports appeared in Indian media saying that the SIM cards for the cellular phones of Mumbai attackers were purchased in Kolkata and in the areas bordering Bangladesh. Soon there was speculation that HUJI –B acted as the local buyer of these SIM cards and supplied them to the Pak militants
J&K POLICE RUBBISH
Jammu and Kashmir police pooh-poohed the ‘speculation’ and ‘reports’. They should know because they have been keeping ‘tabs’ on SIM purchases. ‘It is not for the first time the militants had bought SIM cards in West Bengal. They often do to distract our attention and confuse our investigations’, the JK police spokesman said, adding that the SIM cards in no way imported a Bangladesh angle to the Mumbai attacks.
Diplomatic and intelligence circles opine that Zardari governments appears to be under increasing pressure of the army forcing it to come up with ‘leaks’ which are palmed off as ‘disclosures’ to the media. The invention of Bangladesh connection and a Bangladeshi national as conduit are a part of the exercise aimed at denying ISI and LeT connection to Mumbai.
It may be recalled that even at the time of LeT attack on Indian embassy in Kabul with the backing of ISI, there were vehement denials from Islamabad till their hands were forced.
Pakistan Minister for Information, Sherry Rehman had tried to wriggle out by arguing that there could be elements in ISI going against official position. “Such persons needed to be identified and weeded out (from ISI)”, Rehman, a good spin doctor, told the LA Times and the Guardian.
She may soon ‘roll back’ the claims on Mumbai attacks as more evidence surfaces to puncture the Pak balloon of injured innocence.
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