Safety of handlers of terrorists assured: Mukherjee

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Hinting at the Pakistani
establishment's backing to terrorists who struck in Mumbai,
India Saturday said such strikes could be carried out with
impunity only when the safety of the "handlers" of attackers
has been assured.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the lone
terrorist, who was caught alive during the terror attacks in
Mumbai on November 26, has given to investigators a "chilling
accounts of his handlers."

"The impunity with which these attacks are carried out is
possible only because of the safety the handlers have been
assured," he said addressing a conference here.

Mukherjee said the attack on Mumbai was "cold and
calculated murder" and the death of innocent people there were
"not accidental or unintended as is sometimes referred to as
collateral damage."

Seeking to nail Pakistan's denial that perpetrators
of Mumbai attacks were elements of that country, Mukherjee
said "the faces of terrorists have been seen across the
globe."

While talking about the Mumbai strikes, he also referred
to a similar attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July.

In an obvious reference to the clout of Pakistan
military vis-a-vis democracy in that country, he said genuine
democracy does not come about simply by holding an election
but rather through a process of democratisation that makes
elected representatives accountable and also ensuring that
there is no "de facto centre of power" that is actually
"pulling the puppet strings."

"The pretence of democracy is not equivalent to
democratisation," Mukherjee said.

India would not like to advocate how other countries
should be governed but would certainly like to know "whom we
should deal with vis-a-vis another government; in other words,
who runs the show?"

Mukherjee's remarks come at a time when Pakistan is doing
a flip-flop on the origin of the attackers who carried out the
terror strikes in Mumbai.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had earlier admitted
that the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage could be
'non-state' actors of his country but later said there is
still no "real evidence" that the terrorists came from his
country.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the
village of Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab, who was caught
alive in Mumbai, was cordoned off and his parents were not
allowed to meet anyone.

Pakistani security agencies and local officials in
Faridkot have launched a cover-up since India made it public
that Kasab belonged to the village in Punjab province and his
father acknowledged to a Pakistani newspaper that the gunman
captured in India was his son.

Zardari had earlier agreed to send ISI chief Shuja Pasha
to India to help in investigating the Mumbai attackers but
later backtracked claiming that the agreement was to send a
Director-level official and not the Director General of the
spy agency. PTI