New Delhi: India had questioned Pakistan`s
credibility in a meeting with ambassadors of various countries
and its role in assisting investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai
terror case, a WikiLeaks cable has revealed.
The cable disclosed minutes of the meeting the then
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon had with the US Ambassador
David Mulford and fourteen other ambassadors on January 5,
2009 in which he had shared a dossier of evidence linking the
Mumbai terrorist attacks to Pakistan.
During the meeting two months after the 26/11 attacks,
the then Australian High Commissioner probed Menon on the
joint investigative mechanism proposed by Pakistan.
"The fundamental problem is that Pakistan continues to
deny any links to the attacks," Menon had said, adding, "so
what would be the point of a joint mechanism as long as they
deny there is anything there to investigate?"
"Menon said India would investigate in India, and vice
versa, but India had now provided the results of its
investigation and it was up to Pakistan to cooperate. He
observed, for instance, that Pakistan claimed to ban
Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), but the organisation continues to update
its website." There is, according to Menon, "no evidence that
Pakistan is a reliable partner," the cable said.
"The dossier highlights the Pakistani origin of the
attackers and Pakistan-based support for the attacks, but does
not explicitly implicate officials of the Pakistan Government
or security services," the cable said.
During the meeting, an MEA officer had ran through a
118-slide presentation covering five topics, (1) Evidence (of
Pakistani links to the attacks), (2) Pakistan`s responses
after the Mumbai attacks, (3) Evidence of Pakistani links to
terrorism shared with Pakistan from August 2004 to November
2008, (4) Pakistan`s obligations (under international law),
and 5) What Pakistan should do?
"In his remarks following the presentation, Menon`s
bottom line was that there could not be `business as usual`
until Pakistan investigated the evidence provided and takes
credible action to prevent future attacks. The Indian
government had `consciously refrained` from imposing a long
list of demands or going public with this evidence, but
Pakistan`s actions thus far inspired `little reason to hope
for a constructive reply`," the cable said.
Menon, according to the cable, also pin pointed the role
of Pakistani government in the 2008 terror attack.
"...it was `inconceivable` that the Mumbai attacks could
have been executed without the knowledge or assistance of `the
real power in Pakistan.` Lashkar-e-Tayiba is not just a
threat to India; it trained many more terrorists than took
part in the Mumbai attacks and champions an ideology that
inspires activists from Sudan to South East Asia," the cable
said quoting Menon.
PTI
