ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani government confirmed on Wednesday, January 7, that an investigation into the evidence handed over by India concluded that Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Mumbai attacker, is a Pakistani national.
"Evidences found after a through investigation suggest that Kasab belongs to Pakistan," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told reporters.
India handed over to Pakistan on Monday, January 7, a dossier containing "evidence" about the ten gunmen involved in the Mumbai attacks including transcripts of intercepted telephone calls, a statement of Kasab, weapons recovered and data retrieved from global positioning system.
The charge-sheet includes the names and alleged addresses of the gunmen.
India has always insisted that Kasab and the nine slain attackers are all Pakistani nationals.
"Pakistan has already announced that it will verify all the information provided by the Indian government and whoever is found guilty will be brought to the justice," said Sadiq.
"Terrorists are not only the enemy of India, but they are the enemiesof Pakistan as well."
At least 172 people were killed when gunmen attacked five-star hotels, a popular cafe, a railway station and a Jewish center in Mumbai in November.
Indian Premier Manmohan Singh said Tuesday the attacks were "clearly carried out" by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT), an outlawed Pakistani group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
"There is enough evidence to show that given the sophistication and military precision of the Mumbai attacks, it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan."
Embarrassing
Defense and security analysts believe the new revelation would put Pakistan in hot waters.
"It’s quite an embarrassment and disgrace on diplomatic front, which has left Pakistan in a difficult situation," Kamal Hyder, an Islamabad-based defense and security analyst, told IslamOnline.net.
"If the government was not sure that Kasab is a Pakistani or not, then it should not have denied that outright. How embarrassing it is that you have been denying in tersely words that he is a Pakistani and all of a sudden you admit that he is?"
Hyder says the Indian position on the international front will be much more stronger now.
"Pakistan is now on back-foot. Anything can happen in this situation. Now , the government has to bow to the Indian demands vis-Ã -vis inquiry into the Mumbai attacks," he said.
"The international community will pay more attention to India. Pakistan will have to fight an almost lost battle on the diplomatic front. This all is because of the incompetence and mishandling of the government officials."
Ikram Sehgal, a Karachi-based senior defense analyst, does not see the situation as grave.
"It is true that there is some sort of mishandling on the part of the government, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a total failure," he told IOL.
"But it doesn’t mean, and even the international community is not buying the story, that Pakistan as a state is involved in the attacks."
A team of America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who recently visited Pakistan, found no link between the attack and Pakistani intelligence agencies.
"Pakistan cannot be declared involved in the attacks just on the basis that the attackers belong to Pakistan and they were trained there," says Sehgal.
"If this theory is correct, then the US should have attacked Saudi Arabia and Egypt because all the hijackers involved in the 9/11 belonged to these countries."
By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent