*New Delhi: Indian media has picked up Nawaz Sharif statement over Mumbaiattacks to defame Pakistan military over terrorism issue.*
NDTV and others have reported that Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister NawazSharif appeared to admit that Pakistani terrorists carried out the 2008Mumbai attacks, known as 26/11, and suggest that such terror strikes couldhave been prevented. In an interview to the Dawn newspaper published onSaturday, Mr Sharif also lamented that Pakistan had isolated itself.
He indicated that his country should look into why its narrative that ithad been fighting terrorism had not been accepted by the internationalcommunity “despite sacrifices”.
India accused Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba of carrying out the attacks inMumbai on 26 November, 2008link>,that left 166 people dead and many injured after 10 terrorists withbackpacks, automatic weapons and grenades launched a three-day siege onIndia’s financial capital targeting multiple locations.
Mr Sharif did not nameHafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar’sJamaat-ud-Dawah and Jaish-e-Mohammad that operate in the country withimpunity in the interview. Or the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which according toIndia, sailed into Mumbai from Karachi, to carry out the attacks in anoperation that was coordinated by Pakistani Military, reports Indian media.
“Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should weallow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it tome. Why can’t we complete the trial?” he said, according to the newspaper.
The Mumbai case is being tried in an anti-terrorism court since 2009 but thecase isn’t going anywherelink>.Indian officials say Pakistan did not keep its end of the bargain and sentthe case to court without really investigating the conspiracy that led tothe attacks.
Islamabad, on the other hand, has blamed setbacks during the trial onIndia, insisting that New Delhi had not given “solid evidence” againstHafiz Saeed and others. When Saeed was ordered to be released after 10months of house arrest in November last, the Pakistan government hadjustified the move, saying the law was equal for all.
Mr Sharif, 68, was disqualified by the Supreme Court for not being “honestand righteous” as he failed to declare in 2013 a salary he got from thecompany of his son in the UAE. In February, the top court also disqualifiedhim as the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Former PM Nawaz Sharif’s apparently conciliatory remark on the state’s rolein terrorism, however, is unlikely to indicate a concrete shift inIslamabad’s position. Just months before Hafiz Saeed was released fromdetention, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasilink>hadlaunched a sharp attack on India, over what he had described as, “brutallysuppressing” people in Jammu and Kashmir.