Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In the latest WikiLeaks exposé, Pakistan`s National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani told his Indian counterpart MK Narayanan in 2008 that his country had contacts with “bad guys” and perhaps “one of them” carried out a suicide bombing against the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008.
Durrani, however, added that Inter-Services Intelligence had no hand in the 2008 bombing, according to the cable cited by an Indian daily. The Pakistan NSA further said his country was not directly responsible for the bombing.
A suicide blast that rocked the Indian embassy on July 07, 2008, killed 58 people, including four Indians.
At a meeting in New Delhi on October 13, 2008, Durrani told Narayanan that “Inter-Services Intelligence didn`t do it”, said a US diplomatic cable dated October 28, 2008 from Islamabad.
However, he added, “We have some contacts with bad guys and perhaps one of them did it.”
The cable, sent under the name of Ambassador Anne W Patterson, details a meeting between US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher and Durrani, at which the latter frankly gave an account of his meeting with the Indian NSA.
Durrani further told the US official that Narayanan admitted that he was a “little harsh with us.”
On LoC
The cable reveals Durrani told Boucher that the Indians had “lots of complaints” about some 39 incursions into Indian territory by Pakistani Army during that year.
“The Indian Foreign Secretary [Shivshankar Menon] told him bluntly, said Durrani, that the Indian view was that after [former Pakistan president Pervez] Musharraf lost control, the Pakistani Army went back to its old ways. Durrani pointed out that Musharraf had blocked ‘launch efforts` in Kashmir but said that perhaps one specific battalion on the border was a source of trouble. Pakistan had recommended that the two Directors General of Military Operations meet more regularly; the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had rejected that idea because of objection from their military,” the cable reported.
Responding to Durrani, Boucher advised Pakistan to stay “as clean as possible” on Kashmir.
On Balochistan
Speaking on Pakistan’s claim that India was fomenting terror in Pakistani state of Balochistan, Durrani told Boucher that “despite the facts, he took at face value the Indian Prime Minister`s claim that ‘150%` they were not involved in creating instability in Balochistan”.
The Pakistan NSA also told Boucher that the Indian National Security Council had, for the first time, ‘elaborately’ briefed him “the details of ongoing development work” in Afghanistan; “the Indians noted that they were suffering a casualty every one and half kilometres in this effort.”
On Sir Creek, Durrani told Boucher that India and Pakistan were ready for a deal on the issue.
However, Durrani said, “The Indian Army was opposed to making progress on the Siachen Glacier; he was told by the Indians to ‘forget it,` so perhaps progress was only possible on Siachen within a more comprehensive framework.”
