Posted on 09/30/2006 4:28:17 AM PDT by Republicain
Pakistan's intelligence agency was behind the train blasts in Mumbai in July that killed 186 people, Indian police say. The attacks were planned by the ISI and carried out by the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, based in Pakistan, Mumbai's police chief said.
AN Roy said the Students' Islamic Movement of India had also assisted.
Pakistan rejected the allegations and said India had given no evidence of Pakistani involvement in the attacks.
"We have solved the 11 July bombings case. The whole attack was planned by Pakistan's ISI and carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and their operatives in India," Mumbai (Bombay) police commissioner AN Roy told a news conference.
'Pointing fingers
Mr Roy said 15 people had been arrested, and that some of the bombers had received training in Pakistan.
Tariq Azi, Pakistan's minister of state for information, rejected the allegations.
"India has always chosen this path of pointing fingers at Pakistan without evidence," he said.
"If they have any evidence, they should provide us evidence and we will carry out our investigations."
On 11 July 2006, seven co-ordinated blasts within 15 minutes ripped through trains on Mumbai's busy commuter network.
Indian security officials suggested early on in their investigations that the bombings bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Pakistan denied any involvement in the blasts and Lashkar-e-Toiba condemned the attacks.
India postponed talks with Pakistan after the bombs, but Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met recently in Cuba and said they had agreed to resume talks.
That opening line is a bit incendiary
Incendiary how? The Mumbai police have said that the ISI planned the July 11 blasts and that's what the opening line says.
That aside, this is not a happy day for South Asia, nor for the US - who now has three allies in the region, two of which blame the third for terrorism in their countries. Will Manmohan Singh continue to keep the peace process on track despite this little revelation?
Thirteen years after the 1993 Mumbai blasts - also planned by the ISI - we've just seen the first convictions this month, and not a single ISI officer among them. I imagine the average Indian's patience is wearing thin.
This is incendiary:
"India has always chosen this path of pointing fingers at Pakistan without evidence," he said.
"If they have any evidence, they should provide us evidence and we will carry out our investigations."
Incendiary meaning explosive, meaning their relations with Pakistan just took a nosedive. They had just agreed to resume dialogues
No, that's normal
They have one pakistani arrested...the other 10 or so have fled to B'desh and Pakistan...
The others have fled to P'stan or B'desh? That's quite telling.
The 93 blasts were different in the sense that the groundwork were carried out by organised crime groups,who were extremely powerful & spreadout then, backed with material support from the ISI-the ISI remote controlled crime magnates based in the UAE & Karachi were the main figures in that.So it's not surprising that a squeaky clean ISI hand can be seen in those blasts.
OTOH,the july 11th blasts were done by Pakistan based religious terrorists,who have a weak presence outside J & K.Those folks can do little without massive help from the ISI.
I see the difference, but I really hope we're not going to be waiting until 2019 for the first convictions.
What's your opinion of what is really going here? We're told that there has been a genuine change in Pak support for terrorism since 9/11 - yet still we see a Pak hand in a major terrorist attack in India. Has Musharaff lost control of the levers that work the ISI-Laskar machinery? Or is he just playing both sides?
If this isn't Indian posturing, it'll have to be interpreted as such if the US wants to keep supporting Pakistan.
Well the particular state government (of Maharashtra) has said that they will establish fast track courts to try these cases within 2 years or so.Given the pace & nature of India's archaic Victorian era judicial system,that remains to be seen.Though public sentiment may force such a move.
About Pakistan,well lets take a complimentary view of Musharraf & consider him as the good guy who's trying hard to modernise his country & de-toxify it.Even in such a case,the ultimate solution lies in re-orienting the nature of the army,whereby Musharraf & his cohorts lose all their powers.Will Musharraf want to do that??He probably won't- & that means keeping organisations like the Islamic groups alive to weaken any surge of real democratic forces.About the ISI & terror against India,that's his only handle to remain relevant in Kashmir & against India.The Terror attacks are a warning to a weak-willed Indian leadership of Pakistan's capabilities if it budges from yielding.No right-thinking dictator would want to eliminate such a capacity.He will only degrade the terror infrastructure to insure that the west or India don't go after him.A raghead could possibly go after him for "betraying the cause" as we have seen.
The problem here is that since Indira Gandhi,few Indian leaders have shown the spine to comphrensively beat Pakistan at it's game.
Now consider the view that Musharraf is no different from the ISI or the terror groups they have spawned.His track-record against India is indicative of that.He may not be a Islamic nutjob,but he has a lot to prove.He is a Mohajir(migrated from India)-so hating India all the more & backing these terror groups is a barometer of his loyalty in a Punjabi dominated establishment.
Id take the middle-line from both these views!!
Here is a hint. The full name of Pakistan is ISLAMIC Republic of Pakistan.
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