'Pak involvement in Mumbai attacks very provocative for India, if proved'

Washington, Dec 1 : A panel of US experts have ruled out the possibility of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai attacks that killed 195 people, but said it would be very provocative for India if Pakistan's involvement is proved.

Peter Bergen, CNN expert on terrorism, said if the Mumbai attacks were found to have linkages with 'rogue' elements in the Pakistani military intelligence agency that would 'change the game'.

He recalled that India had accused Pakistani agencies of being behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and if similar involvement of such elements were discovered, that would be "very provocative as far as India is concerned."

John McLaughlin, a former number two at CIA, said that his experience with Indian intelligence services was that they were very good individually but they do not talk to each other as much as they should.

It is possible that they had information about the likelihood of a terrorist attack but that information did not get fully circulated within the Indian system, he said.

Frances Townsend, who served as a senior official for National Security in the Bush White House, said Indian authorities were in receipt of many threats and this could well have been one of them.

McLaughlin, in answer to a question about Pakistan pulling back troops from its border with Afghanistan to deploy them on its eastern border with India, said: "We should be most concerned. If I were looking for an al Qaeda hand in this, this may be giving them too much credit for strategic thinking."

"I would see that al Qaeda would encourage Lashkar-i-Toiba or some other group to do this precisely to achieve that outcome because al Qaeda has the sanctuary up there along that border. It is under some pressure both from the United States and Pakistan. This will be one way to relieve that pressure," he added.

ANI