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| Pakistan must now own up for the Mumbai attacks | |
By Allabaksh
This has been the most widely known secret—that Pakistan Army, and the state, had planned, executed and monitored the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008. But denials and obfuscations on the part of Pakistani military and political leadership, orchestrated by willing and gullible journalists and academics, had hidden this truth behind a convenient smokescreen. Not unlike the story about the patronage given to al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Finally, a highly respected Pakistani diplomat, journalist and academic, Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, has had the courage to write that the dastardly attack was indeed masterminded and carried out by Pakistan Army. His words should lay doubts, if any, at rest, at last.
This is what Haqqani says about the Mumbai attack. He said that when former ISI chief Lt. General Shuja Pasha came to Washington after the Mumbai attacks, he was queried by the senior US military and CIA officials about the involvement of Pakistan Army in the attacks in which Americans were also killed. According to the newspaper reports of that meeting, Shuja denied any such role.
But Haqqani says this is not what the ISI chief told him after meeting with the then CIA chief Michael Hayden.Pasha came to the residence of the Ambassador after meeting Hayden. Pasha said the terrorists involved in the attack were ``hamarey log the``--our men but the operation was not their’s. In other words, the ISI chief admitted that the terrorists were known to the army but the attack was not carried out on the orders of the army. This is a strange confession but it does make it clear that the army knew about the terrorists and their attack plan.
In fact, Haqqani goes on to say in his new book that Pasha had told Hayden that the attack was masterminded by retired military and intelligence officials of Pakistan Army. What he did not say was that these men were part of Section S of ISI, a very much active wing of Pakistan Army, reporting only to the ISI chief, Pasha would know that, and the Chief of Army Staff who at that time was General Shuja Pasha. Pasha incidentally was also instrumental in keeping Osama bin Laden alive and protected in a military garrison while the US and its allies were hunting desperately for the al Qaeda chief who had masterminded the 9/11 attack.
But putting the blame on Shuja Pasha alone would serve hardly any purpose. He was only one cog in the whole big wheel of terror and violence that has been an integral part of the psyche of Pakistan Army. There is no discernible change in this mind-set. What is even more distressing is the complicity of the civilian government and civil society groups in this duplicitous game which Pakistan Army has been playing since long, all to reaffirm and strengthen its supremacy and its hold over the country and its people
Pasha’s admission in a way confirms what has for some time been talked about but not listened to with great attention. It is the existence of a shadowy group of men, with some women as baits for honey trap, within Pakistan Army. This is a shadowy group because its existence has never been acknowledged, not till now.Shuja Pasha’s admission in a way is the first official confirmation of the existence of this group of `dark` operations.
Pasha said the terrorist attack was planned by a group of retired military and intelligence officials. It means, first of all, that he was aware of this group and second that Pakistan Army patronised this group as an extension of the official ISI. That is the reason why no action has ever been taken against any one of the planners and perpetrators of terrorist attacks either against India or other powers, including the US, operating in Afghanistan.
The existence of this group has been known for some time; it goes by the name of Section S. Select military and intelligence officials are recruited either after their normal retirement or induced to retire early and reappointed. This group works outside the formal structure of the ISI and has offices in anonymous buildings across the country. The chain of command is separate from the ISI but all these officials report to the ISI chief and a close circle of senior officers in the army. This group carries out the tasks set by the ISI chief in consultation and with the approval of the army chief.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, before her assassination in December 2007, had written in her emails to some US Senators, about such a group and had even mentioned the names of some of the senior officers of the rank of Major General and Brigadier among them. She suspected this group of officers were planning to kill her; her fears proved right when she was shot by an anonymous killer when she was addressing a public rally. The mystery of her killing has not been solved but it has been speculated often that the assassination was carried out on the orders of this group.
Now that a responsible citizen of Pakistan has spoken about the existence of such a group within Pakistan and its role in planning and executing a major terrorist attack against a neighbouring country, the Nawaz Sharif government must make it a point to shut it down and hold the members of this group and their masters accountable for causing immense damage to the country and to the people of the region. The government must file charges against them and help bring the guilty men of the Mumbai attacks to justice. Prime Minister Sharif must not lose this rare opportunity to hold the army accountable for the violence engulfing not only the region but his country as much.
(The writer is a freelance journalist based in Kashmir)
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