Pakistan may lose USD 1.5 billion financial aid from US

Pakistan Blackmail to Extort Money From western Countries in the name of Terror Is Over:

Pakistan may loose USD 1.5 billion financial aid from the US as a Congressional bill, which was set to debate the 10 years package,has lapsed, a news report said on Saturday.

The Pakistani daily Dawn said in a report that the Biden-Lugar Bill, which would have provided as much as USD 1.5 billion to Pakistan over a period of 10 years expired in 2008 along with the term of the US Congress which was to debate it.

The bill must now be reintroduced by the Senate, it said quoting Pakistani Urdu-language daily Jang.

However, Pakistan's US envoy Hussain Haqqani was quoted as saying by the private television channel Geo that the bill had not been sidelined and remained an integral component of future Pak-US relations.

He underlined that the lapsing of the bill was a technicality of the transition of power within the US and the bill would soon be reintroduced by the US Senate.

The aid through the Biden-Luger bill is desperately needed to boost Pakistan's faltering economy, which has been badly hit by the unrest in the Islamic nation.

Soon after taking office, the Obama administration has indicated that the US will hold Pakistan accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government is desperately in need of financial support to boost its faltering economy.

Pakistan Goverment Pakistan Army Pakistan Intelligency Supports Terrorism

Paksitan Terror Structure : Paksitan Army, Paksitan Intelligence, Paksitani goverment, Taliban AlQaeda

The United States is dusting off a long-discarded proposal to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. Obama government, sources said, contingent on corrective actions taken in the meantime by Islamabad to the satisfaction of India, US and other countries affected by Pakistan's toxic export of death.

US intelligence circles are now re-evaluating Pakistan's contribution to the war on terror, and the ISI's dominant role in the country and its ties with jihadi outfits, at the behest of the Bush administration. The White House itself lost faith in the Pakistan Army's bonafides several months ago which led to Washington's decision to withdraw support to military ruler Pervez Musharraf and back a new civilian government, officials and congressional aides who spoke on background explained. The decision to dump Musharraf was taken at vice-president Dick Cheney recommendation, they added, because of evidence that Pakistan was continuing to help Taliban elements attacking Nato forces.

Bush administration was even more convinced that the Pakistani Army and its intelligence arm ISI, who still calls the shots in Islamabad, are continuing their toxic terror policies. But firm action against them is constrained by both the transition phase in Washington and the US dependence on Pakistan to maintain supply lines to its troops in land-locked Afghanistan. Officials are now re-examining options in this regard, particularly US leverage against Islamabad if Pakistan considers interdiction strategies.

Pakistan came close to being named a state sponsor of terrorism in 1992 when then Secretary of State James Baker charged then prime minister Nawaz Sharif of supporting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The then US envoy in Islamabad Nicholas Platt conveyed to Sharif that "we (US) are very confident of our information that your intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, and elements of the Army are supporting Kashmiri and Sikh militants who carry out acts of terrorism... This support takes the form of providing weapons, training and assistance in infiltration ... We're talking about direct, covert support from the Government of Pakistan."

In his talking points, Platt continued: "Our information is certain. It does not come from the Indian Government. Please consider the serious consequences to our relationship if this support continues... If the situation persists, the Secretary of State may find himself required by law to place Pakistan in the U.S.G. [United States Government] State sponsors of terrorism list... You must take concrete steps to curtail assistance to militants and not allow their training camps to operate in Pakistan or Azad Kashmir."

The situation was defused by Sharif government removing then D-G of ISI Javed Nasir even as Washington was going through a transition phase (from Bush Sr to Clinton).

But it now appears that the ISI has cranked up its policy from mere infiltration and support to outright commando style attacks.

Despite a soft-line adopted by Bush administration in public to the benefit of doubt to Pakistan's civilian government and spur it into action, Washington has little doubt that the terrorist attack on Mumbai was sponsored and planned with state support, US officials are saying privately. One things is certain; this was not a run-of-the mill LeT operation.

"I think this event looks a lot more like a classical Special Forces or commando-style raid than it does like any terrorist attack we've seen before," David Kilcullen, a counter insurgency military analyst who served as an advisor to Gen. Davis Petraeus tells Fareed Zakaria in the upcoming edition of his program GPS, articulating what US officials are saying in private. "No al-Qaida-linked terrorist group and certainly never Lashkar-e-Taiba has mounted a maritime raid of this type or complexity."

The US intelligence community believes that hijacking a fishing vessel, infiltrating via the sea, via inflatable boat, launching diversionary attacks designed to pull the first responders out of the way of the subsequent follow on groups that struck the Oberoi, the Taj Mahal, the Nariman Center and the equipment the terrorists carried and their attire were all in the vein of a covert special-forces raid rather than a traditional terrorist attack.

Pakistan's covert support to Taliban and al-Qaida elements on the country's western front has been extensively chronicled in US military circles in recent months, although political and strategic expediency has constrained Washington from speaking about it in public. In December 2006, Afghan security forces captured Sayed Akbar, an ISI officer, who had been tasked by Pakistani intelligence with serving as a conduit to al-Qaida, which was operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border in the Kunar region.

Debriefed by US and Afghan officials, Akbar said he had escorted Osama bin Laden as he traveled from Afghanistan's Nuristan province into Pakistan's Chitral district, prompting US to rush an FBI team there. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also accused Pakistan around the same time of sheltering Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Quetta and said he had even provided GPS coordinates and phone numbers of the hideout to Pakistan's military government but it did not act.

A few months later a US commander, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Nash, who worked with the Afghan police, made a widely discussed slide presentation on his return to Washington, saying "ISI involved in direct support to many enemy operations ... classification prevents further discussion of this point." The support included "training, funding, [and] logistics," he added.

But the most damning, and most recent, piece of evidence came after the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul when US intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack. The messages, US officials said later, indicated that the ISI officers involved in the bombings were not "renegades," or "stateless actors," and "their actions might have been authorized by superiors."

Washington now believes that is also the case with Mumbai, which is why, notwithstanding a soft public stance, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has conveyed to President Zardari what her predecessor Baker told Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan is on track to being declared a state sponsor of terrorism if it does not act.

It was because of this long history of Pakistan's corrosive terrorist record that an outraged Rice dismissed Islamabad's request for evidence this time, saying, there is a "lot of information about what happened here, a lot of information... And so this isn't an issue of sharing evidence."

Pakistani Terror In Kashmir : LeT commander killed in Sopore

A local area commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Abu Hamza, was killed in Sopore, J&K, on Wednesday in a pinpointed intelligence-driven operation by the Army and J&K police. Hamza, which the intelligence agencies suspect is no more than a “famous” alias being used by the neutralised Pakistani terrorist, was leading the LeT’s operations in Sopore.

Operating from a house in Amargarh village of Sopore, he was known to have limited his movements to a very small area. He had been active in Sopore for the last 8-9 months, intelligence sources told ET. The security agencies had been tracking him for sometime now and it was their tip-off regarding his presence at a residential area in Amargarh that led the Army and J&K police to launch a joint operation to nab him.

Sopore SP Bhim Sen Tuti said that one Army personnel of 52 Rashtriya Rifles was killed in the 16-hour encounter. “Three security men also received injuries ,” he added.

Samjhauta passengers smuggling Rs 70cr worth heroin : Pakistani Citizens as Drug Smugglers

About 14 kgs of heroin being smuggled from Pakistan in the trans-border Samjhauta Express were seized and four passengers of the train arrested for allegedly carrying the contraband, having a street value of Rs 70 crore, officials said here on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, Indian customs officials carried out special frisking of some suspected passengers when the train arrived from Pakistan at the Attari railway station last evening.

During the frisking, the officials seized 14 kg of heroin from four Indian passengers, including two women. The women were identified as Saddiqiquan, a resident of Mazaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Bundila while their male co-passengers were Akhtar Abbas and Ali Baksh, residents of Bulandshahr. All of them went to Pakistan on January 19 2009.

During the interrogation, they said that the consignment of heroin was given to them at the Lahore railway station to deliver to a person who would contact to them on reaching India, according to customs officials.

The four are being questioned to extract information about the persons who were to collect the consignment on the Indian side, they said.

After the November 26 terror attacks in Mumbai, Indian security agencies have enhanced frisking at the Attari railway station and the Attari check post on the land transit route.

RDX being smuggled into India with cement from Pak

RDX being smuggled into India with cement from Pak : World Should discard Pakistani Products as Explosives smuggled by pakistan are used for Terrorism.

Police and security agencies here have got a specific alert — from the police of a North Indian state — about RDX having been smuggled into the country as part of a cement consignment from Pakistan and the target being an oil refinery.

Officials said the high alert sounded at vital installations like railway stations and hotels in Mumbai
last December was not a reaction to the 26/11 carnage but had its basis in this specific intelligence input.

Officials also told TOI that more RDX could be coming in as part of cement or other consignments. But the alert did not name any refinery that was supposed to be the target.

That explained the reaction by Delhi Police and Mumbai Police during the days following the terror attacks on Mumbai. The two closest refineries to Delhi are at Panipat and Mathura. But most of the major refineries are near the coast, including those at Vishakhapatnam, Paradip and Jamnagar.

The alert also mentioned railways as a possible “soft target''.

Several ports, especially those in Vishakhapatnam and Ennore (Tamil Nadu), were also on a high alert on Tuesday. Shipping officials met home ministry and IB officials, agencies reported.

ATS joint commissioner of police Rakesh Maria was not available for comment and state intelligence chief D Shivanandan said he was not privy to the information.

Security was stepped up at all railway stations in National Capital Region following the threat. The police deployed extra Quick Reaction Teams at New Delhi railway station and other stations. "After 26/11, every input is taken seriously,'' said Delhi Police's DCP (crime and railways), Neeraj Thakur.

US will attack Pak if it had intelligence: Biden

Sticking to the campaign pledge of US President Barack Obama, his deputy and Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday said the United States would not hesitate to launch attacks inside Pakistan, if it had actionable intelligence against "high-value" Al-Qaida targets.

"I can say that the President of the United States said during his campaign and in the debates that if there is an actionable target, of a high-level Al Qaida personnel, that he would not hesitate to use action to deal with that," Biden said in an interview to CBS news.

Biden was responding to a question referring to the latest US missile attack inside the tribal regions of Pakistan and if these attacks were approved by Obama or if he would continue with the Bush Administration's policy in this regard.

"It's my understanding that the president, the previous president, gave our US forces and the CIA permission to go across that border, to go after Al Qaida if it became necessary on the ground. Does President Obama -- will he continue that policy?" the CBS anchor asked.

"I can't speak to any particular attack. I can't speak to any particular action. It's not appropriate for me to do that," Biden said and then referred to the famous "actionable intelligence" statement made by Obama during campaign days.

He also declined to answer specific question if the Obama Administration would notify Islamabad before any cross-border movement. "I'm not going to respond to that question," he said.

Referring to his recent trip to Pakistan, Biden said: "The good news is that in my last trip -- and I've been to Pakistan many times and that region many times -- there is a great deal more cooperation going on now between the Pakistan military in an area called the FATA, the Federally Administered Territory -- Waziristan, North Waziristan -- all that area we hear about, that is really sort of ungovernable.

"Not sort of, it's been ungovernable for the Pakistani government. That's where the bad guys are hiding. That's where the Al Qaida folks are, and some other malcontents."

He said: "And so what we're doing is we're in the process of working with the Pakistanis to help train up their counter-insurgency capability of their military, and we're getting new agreements with them about how to deal with cross-border movements of these folks, so we're making progress."

Pakistani Terrorists shot dead in Noida Encounter : Pakistan Citizens Danger To World Community

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday gunned down two alleged militants in an encounter at Noida, in Gautam Buddha Nagar district in the wee hours.

According to police sources the encounter which took place near Sector 97 they recovered two AK 47 rifles, two hand grenades and one bag from them.

Senior Superintendent of Police Navin Arora said that they had information that some persons were on their way from Ghaziabad near Lal Kuan in Maruti Van carrying arms and ammunitions on way to Delhi.

With the help of the Noida Police of Sector 39 and Sector 49, the ATS began chasing these persons and caught them near Amity Square.

In this encounter the alleged militants got injured and were taken to district hospital where they were declared dead.

One of the ATS sepoy Vinod Kumar was also injured. Police sources said that the two terrorists were from Pakistan and had plans to create tensions on the eve of Republic Day.

Pak's picturesque Swat valley turns into terror den: Reports

Adding to the list of areas going out of bounds for Pakistani authorities, the picturesque Swat valley has turned into a hotbed of terrorists and religious extremists, media reports have said.

The idyllic Swat or Suvastu valley joins the list of vast areas of Balochistan, Waziristan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North West Frontier Province going out of control of Pakistani administration, a series of reports in Pakistani magazines and newspapers said.

The valley, once a popular tourist destination, recently witnessed blasts on power grids, bridges, gas pipelines, schools and hotels triggered by the terrorists. These militants also own radio frequencies and air radical messages freely, reports in 'The Herald', 'The Dawn' and 'The News' said.

Almost daily, four to five headless bodies are found on the streets of Mingora, the only major town of Swat, the reports said.

Even as the government plans to make changes in deployment of four army brigades stationed in Swat, including one from Rawalpindi overseen by a General-Officer-Commanding, the local people have started "doubting the state's motive and the real aims of the (army) operations".

Media reports claimed that the army operations not only killed civilians mainly but also left major infrastructure like power stations and bridges unguarded for the militants to attack at will.

Reports in 'The Herald' magazine and some major newspapers quoted locals as saying that "a common grievance" was that the activities of the army, before it took an offensive mode against the Taliban, "clearly revealed to the militants that action against them was about to take place, allowing them to escape."

While "nearly 800 policemen — half of the sanctioned strength of police
in Swat — have either deserted or proceeded on long leaves", those on duty come out on the streets for a few hours in day time with the army as their escorts, reports in 'The Dawn' and 'The News' said.

An unnamed Pakistani Home Department official told 'The Herald' that more than 400 policemen have given up their jobs in Swat.

"Civic bosses have either performed a vanishing act or are ineffective", 'The Herald' said, adding that the morale of the police force was at its lowest ebb.

'The News' said in a report that one of the busiest squares in Mingora has been renamed by the shopkeepers as 'Khooni chowk' because every morning, when they come to their shops, they would find four or five dead bodies hung over the poles or the trees.

Similarly, bodies with their throats slit are found regularly in areas like Qambar, Kabal, Matta, Khawza Khela and Charbagh, it said.

Recently, at Mingora, the Missionary Girls High School and the Excelsior College were blown up by Tehreek-e-Taliban.

The militant outfit's Swat unit spokesman Haji Muslim Khan informed the media that the action was taken up as "the school had been preaching Christianity and the college was co-educational".

The number of schools blown up or torched now stands at 181 — the highest perhaps in any insurgency anywhere in the world in an area as small as Swat.
—
Contributing further to the already grim scenario is the growing negative public perception of the military operation which they said has killed more civilians than militants, the reports said.

The perception was reinforced by rising civilian casualties, shrinking state authority, terrorists' ability to strike anywhere, any time and military's over-reliance on long-range artillery than putting boots on the ground, the reports added.

People are closeted in their homes not only because of the terrorists, but also due to the almost indefinite curfew imposed by the government.

While no credible data is available to estimate the number of civilian casualties in the seven-month-old military operation, the police, which has generally been absent in most militant-controlled areas, said the figure ran into hundreds.

The damage caused to property and infrastructure since the emergence of militancy in Swat has been evaluated at three billion Pakistani rupees, according to an unmanned senior Pakistan government official quoted in the report.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to install a one megawatt transmitter which, it believes, would effectively silence the militant radio propaganda, the reports said.

Radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah runs an FM radio in Swat, while his lieutenant Shah Doran's sermon broadcasts are heard far and wide, thanks to a 500 KV transmitter they own.

The situation is so grim that 'The News' daily, in a report, appealed to the people to protest the violation of civil rights and liberty in Swat, both by the terrorists and the military.

It quoted the people's sentiment in Swat saying, "We hear no voice raise against the atrocities committed in Swat. No civil society organisation has raised its voice against the plight of the women and children in Swat. We have not seen a single demonstration in the big cities against the monster of militancy in Swat, or in FATA for that matter.

"The media also seems apathetic about the plight. The people of Swat ask you to come out on their behalf and mobilise the general public against the war tearing the valley. We implore you to come out of your drawing rooms and stage protests so that the government does something about our plight."

Pak concedes India has got proof against Pak nationals

Pak concedes India has got proof against Pak nationals,Pakistan Lies Nailed, Country of Liars

Giving in to international pressure to "cooperate" with the investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan acknowledged on Saturday India's 26/11 dossier has "proof" of involvement of the complicity of Pakistani elements.

The first-ever admission that India had proof came from Pakistan's interior ministry chief Rehman Malik who said that the newly-appointed probe panel has been asked to complete the task in 10 days.

Acknowledging the veracity of the information provided in the Indian dossier, Malik said there were "leaks and good clues", enough material to start a probe. "All actions which will be taken against the terrorist involved in the Mumbai terror attack will be carried only on the basis of proof shared by India. Now we have significant proof of the involvement of Pak nationals in the Mumbai terror attack and we assure of a fair justice. Pakistan's investigation team will complete the probe into Mumbai attacks within 10 days," he said.

Malik, who was addressing a press conference in Islamabad, promised to file criminal cases if prima facie evidence was found. "Quite a lot of material was provided by India and the Pakistani investigators will work to convert this into evidence that can stand up to judicial scrutiny."

Malik, however, refused to commit himself to any time frame to complete the prosecution, saying it would depend on the judiciary.

India's grouse has been that Pakistan had refused to even consider a probe based on the information provided. This signalled a lack of intent, India had held.

On Saturday, France joined a growing list of countries to express solidarity with India on the attacks, saying the Indian dossier was perfectly "credible". Nicholas Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser, Jean-David Levitte, said there could be no criticism of the evidence provided by India. "We want Pakistan to cooperate fully. This is the least we can ask, and it's also in their interest to do so."

However, like the UK, France too refused to accept any suggestion of involvement of the Pakistani official agencies in the attacks. Levitte said clearly that while the Indian dossier was above reproach, even the dossier did not point fingers at anybody in the Pakistani official hierarchy.

Security officials dealing with their counterparts in other countries also say there are few takers for India's allegation, famously made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, that Pakistani official agencies were involved. They're willing to grant the involvement of LeT, but stopped short of the ISI. It blows a hole in the continuing Indian contention, not because there wasn't any, but that India has not made any clear case for any official involvement.

Just as after 9/11 French paper `Le Monde' wrote "we are all Americans", Levitte said, France felt the same way after the Mumbai attacks. "When India is challenged, we feel challenged."

In Islamabad, however, Malik insisted that Pakistan was not acting under Indian pressure or any other country's pressure. British foreign secretary David Miliband got the Pakistani version of an earful as well, when Malik refuted his demand to go "farther and faster" on the investigation. "We will not accept anyone's instructions to do things faster."

In Pak, A for Allah, B for bandook, J for jihad : Future Terrorists Of Pakistan

There is more evidence to prove that Talibanisation of the Pakistani society is being enthusiastically backed by its state agencies.In Pak, A for Allah, B for bandook, J for jihad
The curricula of its schools are tailored to encourage Taliban’s complete intolerance of any other world view.

According to the National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks, Class V children are expected to “acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan, make speeches on jihad and shahadat, understand Hindu-Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan, India’s evil designs about Pakistan and demonstrate by actions a belief in the fear of Allah”.

A report by Pervez Hoodbhoy of Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University and author of Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality said thousands of Pakistani school-going children are growing up learning that the Urdu equivalent of the letter A stands for Allah, B for bandook (gun) and J for jihad. Though not officially prescribed for pre-schoolers, books printed by Iqra Publishers are being used in several regular schools and madrassas across Pakistan.

In his article in the Newsline, Mr Hoodbhoy said the three examples of Allah, bandook and jihad are not the only ones which sound like a blueprint for a religious fascist state. “The Urdu letter for the T sound stands for takrao (collision), K for khanjar (dagger), H for hijab (veil) and Z for zunoob (sins) — which includes watching television, playing musical instruments and flying kites.

In the article titled “The Saudi-isation of Pakistan”, the Pakistani academic of repute said Pakistan’s self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that, like Saudi Arabia’s system, provides an ideological foundation for violence and future jihadists. “It demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, and creates in the mind of a school-going child a sense of siege and embattlement by stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere,” Mr Hoodbhoy said.

Mr Hoodbhoy said he was appalled at the syllabus which expects Class V students to make speeches about jihad. “This is the basic roadmap for transmitting values and knowledge to the young. By an act of parliament passed in 1976, all government and private schools are required to follow this curriculum. It was prepared by the curriculum wing of the federal ministry of education, government of Pakistan. It sounds like a blueprint for a religious fascist state,” he said.

The academic said the fear of taking on powerful religious forces, every incumbent government has refused to take a position on the curriculum and allowed young minds to be moulded by fanatics. “What may happen a generation later has always been secondary for a government challenged on so many fronts.

The education ministry estimate shows that 1.5 million students are acquiring religious education in the 13,000 madrassas. These figures appear to be way off the mark. Commonly quoted figures range between 18,000 and 22,000 madrassas. The number of students could be correspondingly larger,” he said. The mushrooming of Taliban nurseries in Pakistan is bad news for New Delhi as many of them are churning out India-bound jihadis.

Pakistan's ISI training women for terrorism : Pakistan Citizens Dangerous to World Security

Pakistan's ISI training women for terrorism : Pakistan Citizens Dangerous to World Security

Security forces in Jammu & Kashmir have found the new face of terror. During an interrogation of a woman arrested last week by the J&K police for providing logistics support for the JeM and Let militants, it was revealed that Pakistan's ISI is reportedly inducting women into militancy. ( Watch )

TV reports suggest that ISI is adopting a new ploy and training woman to carry out militant attacks.

During interrogation of an alleged ISI agent arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police, she confessed that she was trained by the ISI in the Bhiber and Kotli forests in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The video footage shows Asiya Malik - a woman militant, revealing that about 100 girls are being trained in terrorist camps financed by ISI in PoK to carry out militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

In her recorded conversation, Malik reveals how Pakistani girls are being trained in the handling of weapons, explosives, jungle warfare and sabotage activities. She said the women are being trained in two militant training camps in Bhimber and Kotli areas across the Line of Control in PoK.

"I've seen the Mujahideen training camps. Women are also being trained here. Right now, there are about 700 women receiving arms training in different militant camps run by the ISI. These women are also provided with terror literature and taught how to use small arms like guns & grenades," she said in a recorded confession.

Malik also told interrogators that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was financing these training camps and that the recruits come from various countries including Saudi Arabia.

India convinced of Pak Army role in Mumbai Attacks

India is convinced of the central role played by Pakistan's army in Mumbai terror attacks, but has stopped short of blaming it openly.

Sources close to the Indian intelligence establishment are convinced that the conspiracy was hatched and executed at the Pakistani army headquarters but there was no proof to substantiate it.

Analysts who watch Pakistan closely express little doubt that the provocation was aimed at forcing India to attack Pakistan in order to swing popular opinion within the country in the army’s favour. Perhaps that is the reason why India has not played the blaming game, yet.

Six weeks after gunmen terrorized Mumbai, the Indian government continues to stop short of pointing a firm finger at Pakistan’s army and its spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and say that they hatched the plot and directed the attack. The Indian establishment seems to be hoping for an improbable mea culpa from Pakistan which is living in denial about the role of its spy agency.

The wait looks to be a long one. And there is no help forthcoming from government officials either. Their statements are, as usual, couched in euphemisms. Sample this: At the beginning of the week, home minister P Chidambaram said: “No non-state actor can mount this attack without any kind of state help. It is too enormous a crime, required very elaborate preparations and very elaborate communications network and financial support and equipment.”

Preliminary investigation had made it clear that the young men who carried out the attack were from Pakistan. The confession of the lone gunman captured on Mumbai’s famous Queen’s Necklace and other damning material collected by investigators reinforced the fact.

There are three main reasons why the Pakistani military is seen to be behind this attack on India.

First, Pakistan was unhappy with the newly elected civilian government’s peace overtures to India and efforts to marginalize the military establishment. After coming to power, President Asif Ali Zardari had said that Pakistan would not be the first one to use nuclear weapons which was an about-turn from that country’s first-use-as-deterrent policy. Zardari also dismantled the ISI’s political wing, which was instrumental in propping up fundamentalist political parties. Second, it was worried about India’s increasing influence in Afghanistan, a country the Pakistani army and ISI consider their backyard. Third, the army was worried about India’s intensifying political and defence cooperation with Israel.

At a conference of chief ministers recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came close to saying that with or without the knowledge of the civilian government, the Pakistani army had masterminded the attack. Accusing Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba for carrying out the attacks, Manmohan Singh said: “There is enough evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the attack, it must have had support of some official agencies of Pakistan.”

In an interview to a television channel, the Home Minister had hinted at the role of the army when he asked for guarantees from “those who control the levers of power, and that means the elected civilian Government, plus the Army”. He, however, went only thus far.

Even India's Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon stopped short of pointing out the real issue. “We are at the point where it is clear that the crime might have been committed in India but the conspiracy behind the crime was in Pakistan,” Menon told newspersons on Tuesday after handing over evidence to Pakistan.

The tough-talking bureaucrat, however, refused to speculate on where the material collected by Indian investigators may further lead. He said India had handed over the evidence and it was up to that country to follow the trail. Pakistan has since rejected the material.

While civilian governments in Pakistan have made some efforts off and on to normalise the country’s relationship with India, the army has never forgotten the humiliating defeat of 1971. After the war, it devised the strategy of bleeding India with a thousand cuts, which it pursues to this day. Over the years, the Pakistani army and the ISI has trained and equipped militants to infiltrate into Kashmir. The spy agency is believed to offer money, arms and training support routinely to home-grown terrorists in India. It is also supposed to have used terrorists to encroach into Kargil and set up positions there in the summer of 1999.

An analyst said that about 15 key people in the Pakistani military complex form the decision-making apparatus. “They include the army and ISI chiefs and corps commanders,” Executive Director of Institute for Conflict Management, Ajai Sahni said.

However, the Indian Government, so far, has been unable to use effectively the knowledge that the army and ISI in Pakistan have actively supported terrorism against India. After the Mumbai attacks, it has become even more important to publicize the point.

According to strategic affairs expert Ashley Tellis, “India should make more positive demands of Pakistan.” By positive demands, Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, means that India should clearly tell its neighbour what are the specific things it wants it to do to build confidence.

He says now the Indian Government seems to be acting under the presumption that the civilian government is too weak to pull up the army and ISI, often described as a state within the state.

Over the past few days, India has stepped up the diplomatic pressure. By not falling into the trap of a military mobilisation, it effectively neutralised an excuse for Pakistani army to move its troops from its western border where it is fighting Al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban, to the Indian border. It is quite clear that India will not take any direct military action against Pakistan and would prefer to get the international community, especially America, to act on its behalf. That would mean playing a sophisticated diplomatic game in Afghanistan.

As Pakistani journalist and Afghan expert Ahmed Rashid says: “The Kashmir war is now being fought in Afghanistan.”

US think tank rates Pak's FATA as most dangerous place

With the Mumbai terror attacks highlighting the threat from the Pakistani terror infrastructure, concerns have increased over the situation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

A US based think tank has equated the situation in the FATA with the security environment in Afghanistan and has asked that the incoming Obama presidency declare the FATA a part of the territory of war in the region. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies said that the FATA region, which is a safe haven for the Taliban and the al-Qaeda, should be termed the “most dangerous place” by US President-elect Barack Obama.

A “nuclear Pakistan as a base for international terrorism is a prospect that the world cannot afford,” the think tank said in a report called ”FATA A Most Dangerous Place”, which is authored by Shuja Nawaz, a Pakistani journalist and first director of the South Asia Centre at the Atlantic Council.

The report further said that redefining the territory of war in the region to include FATA would help CENTCOM, the US Central Command, to cooperate with the Pakistan army in military and economic development efforts in a better manner.

“FATA remains a most dangerous place, with the failure of governance and the rise of militancy affecting Afghanistan and Pakistan not only individually and separately but also jointly,” Mr Nawaz said in the concluding observations.

The report further recommends that the US should forge a long-term relationship with Pakistan and warns that a failure to bring peace and stability to FATA would have repercussions not just for Pakistan and Afghanistan but also the entire world.

The report supports National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley’s remarks that the biggest foreign policy challenge for President-elect Barack Obama was not Iraq or Afghanistan, but Pakistan.

In an interview to the Wall Street Journal Mr Hadley had said that Pakistan’s border areas ie the FATA region poses a threat to India and the entire world. Mr Hadley had said that the chaos threatened the entire region and the world and that the problems in Afghanistan could not be addressed without solving Pakistan.

“Pakistan’s increasingly turbulent border region poses threats not just to the US mission in Afghanistan, but also to neighbouring India, as evidenced by the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks, as well as to urban areas of Pakistan itself — and the world beyond,” he said.

There have been reports that the Taliban militia, which is largely unchecked in the region, has been expanding its influence throughout the Pashtun border regions to the whole of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

Pakistan finally owns up to Kasab : The Pakistani Terrorist

Pakistan Nationals Are Terrorist : After being in denial mode for weeks, Pakistan finally admitted on Wednesday that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai carnage, was indeed a Pakistani national but was unsure whether it would provide him consular access as he has asked for to defend himself.

"Pakistani authorities, during the course of their own investigations into the Mumbai carnage have established the identity of the only surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab as a Pakistani national," Dawnnews reported on its website.

The admission comes a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a hard-hitting speech, held "official agencies" of the Pakistan government complicit in the Mumbai attack and accused Islamabad of having "utilised terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India."

Also on Tuesday, India's Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma urged Pakistan to own up Kasab's nationality as the "first step" to indicate its intention to cooperate in the probe into the Mumbai mayhem.

Dawnnews also quoted a high-ranking government official as saying that because of the nature of Kasab's crime, the government has still not taken any decision on whether to provide him with counsellor access.

"The top official said the investigations had started soon after the initial reports had suggested that Ajmal Kasab may possibly be a Pakistani national," Dawnnews said.

"However, the authorities wanted to be doubly sure of his identity as there existed no record of Kasab and his family in the National Data Base which is maintained by NADRA. Details of the preliminary investigations submitted to the government have still not been made public," it added.

The official said Kasab is the son of Amir Kasab and Mrs Noor Illahi.

The identity of others militants killed in Mumbai carnage is yet to be established but senior security officials told Dawnnews that preliminary investigations "have established that these militants were operating on their own and had absolutely no link with any section of the country's security apparatus.

"A formal announcement in this regard is expected in the next few days," Dawnnews said.

In other developments Wednesday, Defence Minister A.K. Antony asserted that India had "all available and possible options" open and asked Pakistan to book those who gave "inspiration, direction and support" to the Mumbai attacks and to "dismantle" the terror outfits functioning from its territory.

"There are two things. Those persons who gave inspiration, direction and support (to the terrorists in Mumbai) should be booked. Secondly, more than 30 terror outfits are active across the border. To dismantle them is the duty of the (Pakistani) government," Antony told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

"After 26/11, there are no serious attempts to disband the terror outfits across the border and that is a major worry.... We are examining all available, possible options to prevent a repeat of this kind of infiltration and tragic incidents like what happened in Mumbai," Antony said, declining to elaborate on the options available.

On its part, the US reiterated that the Mumbai attacks originated from Pakistan, but wanted New Delhi and Islamabad to work together to bring those responsible to justice and prevent future attacks.

"Well, we've talked about the origins of the attack coming from Pakistani soil. Secretary (of State Condoleeza) Rice, during her visit to the region, said that herself," State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.

But "I would look at one part of this exchange as encouraging; that is, that there is an exchange of information here between India and Pakistan," he said when asked if the US shared India's conclusion that those responsible for the Mumbai attacks were at least supported by official agencies in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's spy chief has categorically stated there would not be a war with India in the wake of the Mumbai attacks and that Islamabad's enemy is not its eastern neighbour but terrorism.

"We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds. We know fully well that terror is our enemy, not India," Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha told German newsmagazine Der Spiegel in an interview.

"There will not be a war," he declared confidently, adding: "We are distancing ourselves from conflict with India, both now and in general."

Pakistan using terrorism as State Policy

Paksitan Terrorist President : Asif Ali Zardari

Speaking tough against the backdrop of its continued paskitans denials, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday accused Pakistan of utilizing terrorism as an instrument of state policy and said given the "sophistication and military precision" of the Mumbai terror attack, it musthave had the support of some official agencies in that country.

He also said those incharge of terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan have resorted to other stratagems to infiltrate terrorists into India via Nepal and Bangladesh though it has not totally ceased via the Line of Control.

Addressing a day-long conference of Chief Ministers on the internal security, Singh said concerns may exist that the country's defence mechanism to thwart the numerous threats were inadequate and that there may be criticism that the range of instruments to deal with internal security threat were not sufficiently sophisticated.

"Clearly, there is need to review the effectiveness of our set up for the collection of technical signal and human intelligence. The training and equipment provided to our security forces also requires a careful review," he said.

Admitting that a great deal more needs to be done, Singh said both the Centre and the state governments must attend to this task with speed, efficiency and utmost dedication.

In his 30-minute speech, the Prime Minister referred to multi-dimensional challenges of different kinds of which the most serious threats were those posed by terrorism, Left wing extremism and insurgency in the north east.

"Extremism is primarily indigenous and home grown. Terrorism, on the other hand, is largely sponsored from outside the country, mainly Pakistan, which has utilised terrorism as an instrument of State policy," he said.

Pakistani Terrorist : Key 26/11 planner was also behind Mumbai train blasts

Sabauddin Ahmad (24), a Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative arrested in February 2008 for an attack on an army camp in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, has said that the terror group’s chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi masterminded the July 11, 2006, train bombings in Mumbai. The November 26, 2008, terror attack was also planned by Lakhvi, whose custody has been sought by India.

A copy of Sabauddin’s 40-page confession, made while he was in the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force’s custody, is with Hindustan Times. Sabauddin is currently in the Mumbai Crime Branch’s custody.

Sabauddin said he had flown to the United Arab Emirates from Karachi on July 1, 2006. Six days later, he flew to Dhaka and stayed at Hotel Midway on VIP Road. He heard of the train bombings on July 11, as he was trying to cross into India.

The same day, Muzammil, Sabauddin’s trainer at the Lashkar camp at Baith-ul-Mujahideen in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), asked him to return to Pakistan. Sabauddin said he flew to Karachi, heading straight to the camp. “I discussed the train blasts with Abu Anas [a Lashkar operative]. He told me that those responsible for the blasts had escaped to safe destinations. Lakhvi had forbidden all talk of the train blasts,” Sabauddin said in the confession.

Sabauddin, from Madhubani district in Bihar, was a good student, passing his Secondary School Certificate exams from Darbhanga with a first class in 1999. He joined Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) the next year for his 10+2 in science.

After the 2002 Gujarat riots, Sabauddin met one Ajmal from Gaya in Bihar, who was pursuing a BTech at AMU. Ajmal befriended him and influenced him to “fight against the injustice meted out to Muslims”. In March 2002, Ajmal took Sabauddin to one Salim Salar in Jamalpur, Uttar Pradesh. Salar was a key Lashkar operative, sending youths to Pakistan for terror training.

Sabauddin was sent to Baith-ul-Mujahideen via Jammu and Hilkaka in the Pir Panjal range. At the camp, he was trained in arms and explosives as well as river crossing, rock climbing and border crossing. The camp was controlled by Lakhvi, he said.

After 45 days, the batch of 70 jehadis was taken to training camp run by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at Marwah in Pakistani Punjab. “There too we were given similar training for about 50 days with an emphasis on weapons use,” Sabauddin said.

In October-November 2002, the Lashkar’s annual meeting was held over three days at Pattoki, 12 km from Lahore. It was attended by top leaders like Abd-ur-Rehman Makki, Abd-us-Saalam Gulvi, Lakhvi and Abu Hamza.

Later, Muzammil arranged a meeting between Sabauddin and Lakhvi in Islamabad. “Lakhvi asked me to go to the ISI and work with them as they needed a dedicated jehadi,” said Sabauddin.

Eventually, Sabauddin was taken to the Markaz Taiba, headquarters of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, LeT’s parent body, where its chief Hafeez Sayed stayed. Sabauddin was later taken to Lahore to meet one Colonel Kayani, an ISI staffer. “Kayani sent me to a safe house near Batta Chowk in Lahore,” said Sabauddin. He met Sayed in March 2003 during prayers at Moch Darwaz mosque in Lahore.

Sabauddin said the ISI prepared his Pakistani passport, using which he flew to Kathmandu, Dhaka, Colombo and the UAE, before arriving in Bangalore to enroll in a college, as directed by the Lashkar. He said he provided shelter and safe passage to Abu Hamza, who planned the attack on the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore on December 28, 2005.

After the Rampur attack, when he was in Kathmandu, Sabauddin was asked by Muzammil to meet a man who went by the code name of ‘Saquib’, but whose real name was Fahim Ansari. Ansari was originally a resident of Goregaon (E) in Mumbai.

"I helped Ansari cross into India. He went to Mumbai and established himself, but did not get the weapons for suicide attacks — because the Rampur attackers had thrown away their weapons,” said Sabauddin. “I had to get the weapons picked up and stored as one more attacker was being sent from Kashmir.” With this in mind, Sabauddin went to the hotel where Ansari was staying in Kathmandu. “However, I was arrested there by the Nepal police.”

Chinese secret intelligence involved in helping Pakistan in Mumbai massacre?

Sources in China are eager not to call Pakistan any culprit. The shadow ISI (the unofficial intelligence militia of Kiani) may have received direct help and intelligence from Chinese secret military intelligence in carrying out the Mumbai massacre.

Beijing: Xinhua, the Chinese government run news agency, has blamed the "Deccan Mujahideen" for the attack on Mumbai that killed 172 people and injured nearly 300 others. It made no mention of India's insistence that the terrorists came from Pakistan and were supported by forces in the neighboring country Pakistan.

The description of the incident fits in with the overall attitude of the Chinese official media to spare Pakistan of any blame for the incident. The local media has been giving a lot of play to defensive statements from Pakistani leaders while underplaying the charges made by India.

Chinese made advanced arms and ammunitions were used in carrying out the heinous act. There are indirect indications that Chinese military intelligence in India may have helped the rubber rafts coming into the Indian shore. India Navy is looking into the means these terrorists used to fool Indian coast guard deterrents.

Some very advanced intelligence organization helped the terrorists and their sponsors to cause maximum panic and destruction with a limited resource. Pakistan’s ISI is not that capable just alone working with its mediocre intelligence and espionage personnel.

China’s eagerness to protect Kiani of Pakistan raises some serious questions about Chinese involvement in Mumbai massacre. Sooner or later RAW and CBI will find out the secret Chinese connections but Indian public will be kept in the dark for international political reasons.

Pak Use LeT confessions to absolve Nefarious Terrorist activities Of ISI

Pakistan appears to be building a case for absolving ISI of any involvement in the Mumbai attacks, planning to use the confessions from Lashkar-e-Toiba militants to prove its argument that non-state actors "operating on their own" were behind the terror strikes.

Pakistani authorities have obtained confessions from members of LeT that they were involved in the November 26 attacks, the New York Times reported, a day after a similar report appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

"After weeks of stonewalling, it also seems clear that Pakistan may use its investigation to make the case that the Mumbai
attackers were not part of a conspiracy carried out with the spy agency... ISI, but that the militants were operating on their own and outside the control of government agents," the Times report said.

The most talkative of the senior Lashkar leaders being interrogated is said to be Zarrar Shah, a Pakistani official told the paper. American intelligence officials say they believe that Shah, the group's communications chief, has served as a conduit between the LeT and the ISI.

"His close ties to the agency and his admission of involvement in the attacks are sure to be unsettling for the government and its spy agency," the report said.

The LeT operational head Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is also said to be cooperating with investigators.

"These guys showed no remorse," said the Pakistani official. "They were bragging. They didn't need to be pushed, tortured or waterboarded" into making their statements.

The confessions made no mention of any involvement by the Pakistani government, said the official, who added, "They talk about people acting on their own."

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) : A Terrorist Organization may rename itself to get around ban

s Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), front organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba, preparing to reincarnate under a new name in the wake of a ban clamped on it by the UN Security Council for its involvement in Mumbai terror attacks?

According to sources here, JuD may be planning to rename itself as 'Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool' (Movement for defending the honour of God) to avoid restrictions which Pakistan could be forced to impose on it because of UNSC sanctions.

The indication that JuD may be thinking of changing its name came as some senior cadres of the outfit recently organised a rally in Pakistan under the banner of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool (THR), the sources said.

In fact, JuD itself is a reincarnation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) after the latter was banned by the US seven years ago.

Formed in 1990 in Kunar province of Afghanistan, LeT does not believe in democracy and Saeed, its founder leader, has publicly declared it several times that 'jihad' is the "only way Pakistan can move towards dignity and prosperity".

India feels that Pakistan is using 'jihadis' as "one of the arms of diplomacy" and due to this reason, it is not taking any action except "tokenism" against JuD despite the UNSC ban imposed on December 11 in the wake of November 26 Mumbai attacks.

New Delhi contends that JuD continues to engage in various kinds of activities under the garb of education and "so-called charities", with Islamabad turning a blind eye to it in "flagrant violation" of international law.

In this context, the sources said the headquarters of JuD or LeT in Muridke near Lahore continues to be functional.

JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who is supposedly under house arrest, is said to be freely moving about though in a restricted manner escaping the media gaze, the sources said.

India is peeved at the special treatment being meted out to Saeed by Pakistan, contending that he should be put in a regular prison rather than "so-called house arrest" since he has been accused of involvement in heinous crimes.

Pakistan has also not imposed any restrictions on publication of magazines and other literature by JuD, despite these activities being prohibited by the UNSC resolution, the sources said.

"There is anything but compliance with the UNSC resolution by Pakistan," they said,which was a complete lie as usuall by pakistan Army.

The UNSC could be approached to highlight how Pakistan is disregarding its resolution but there is a view in Delhi that reasonable time should be given before this option is utilised.