Pak finds Mumbai evidence given by India 'insufficient': Media

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Jan 6 (PTI) Describing Mumbai attacker Ajmal
Amir Iman Kasab's confession as "doctored", Pakistani
authorities have reportedly said the evidence provided by
India on the terror strikes is "insufficient" and no action
can be taken based on it.

Pakistan had informed visiting US Assistant Secretary of
State Richard Boucher that the evidence handed over Monday
by India is "too insufficient to be made a ground for any
action", "reliable sources" were quoted as saying by The
Nation newspaper.

The report did not specify which Pakistani leader had
conveyed this message to Boucher during his visit here
yesterday. The report also did not state on what grounds the
evidence provided by India was deemed insufficient.

Boucher met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi,
who all said Pakistan will take action against anyone found
involved in the attacks if India provided "credible" evidence.

Noting that the evidence provided to Pakistan by India
consisted of the confession of Kasab, the lone terrorist
arrested for the Mumbai incident, The Nation claimed that he
was being held by Indian intelligence agencies and his
statement could have been recorded "under torture and
violence" and thus had "no legal status".

The sources told the newspaper that Iman's confession was
"doctored" and the Indian dossier also contained a demand for
handing over LeT commanders Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar
Shah, blamed by New Delhi for masterminding Mumbai attacks.

The report said Pakistan is expected to frame a reply on
the evidence handed over by India "in a day or two". The
government has formed a committee comprising officials of
different investigating agencies to review the evidence and
prepare a report, it added.

The pro-establishment The News daily reported that
interior ministry sources had "literally laughed off the India
dossier".

The dossier included transcripts of phone conversations
between the attackers and their LeT handlers, decoded Skype
calls over the internet between the terrorists in the Taj and
Oberoi Hotels and a Jewish centre and their LeT controllers,
weapons recovered after the carnage and the interrogation
report of Iman.

The sources said the dossier contained intercepted
telephonic conversations between the Mumbai attackers and two
LeT commanders -– operations chief Lakhvi and communications
specialist Zarar Shah -– who have been arrested by Pakistani
authorities and are being interrogated.

The interior ministry sources "maintained that the
evidence provided to Pakistan largely seems to be cooked up
and chiefly aimed at maligning the country", The News said.

The newspaper also quoted Western diplomatic sources as
saying that there is "nothing new" in the dossier handed over
to Pakistan.

However, Boucher told a news conference here last night
that it had been clearly established that the Mumbai attackers
had links to Pakistan and that the US would encourage Pakistan
to pursue the leads provided by India so that the perpetrators
of the carnage can be tracked down.

An unnamed official also told The Nation that Pakistan
too had prepared a dossier containing alleged evidence on
India's "involvement in acts of terror in (Pakistan's) tribal
areas and Balochistan" and "the role of Indian consulates in
Afghanistan in this regard".

"Pakistan will soon send its dossier to Washington and
other world capitals to let them know which state in South
Asia has been supporting the menace of terror on the soil of
neighbouring states," the official said. PTI RHL
SAK
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