Mumbai attack evidences indicate Pak's role :WP

Washington, Dec 22: The evidences of Mumbai terror attacks 2008 clearly indicates that Pakistan had its hand in it and it is the responsibility of Pakistan govt to take the responsibility of the heinous attack, Washington Post (WP) opined.

In the straight forward editorial, Post pointed out that "the lone surviving attacker, a Pakistani national, has signed a statement describing how he was recruited and trained by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) group.

Intelligence officials say cellphone intercepts show that the attackers were communicating with Lashkar commanders in Pakistan during the attacks." When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Islamabad, he outrightly blamed LeT for its act. Brown also opined that 'the time has come for action, and not words,' from Pakistan.

"Stunningly, however, Pakistan's civilian govt is refusing to acknowledge the truth. In an interview with the BBC last week, President Asif Ali Zardari claimed that there is still no proof that the attackers came from his country."

Zardari had also told Lally Weymouth of Newsweek that he don't have any specific information showing that the terrorists were trained in Pakistan. Zardari's govt due to the high pressure from Bush Administration had place the leader of LeT under house arrest. It had also rounded up several dozen of its militants, including the man India has identified as the chief planner of the attacks.

The Post in its hard hitting editorial also said that "this unconvincing sweep looks bad in the light of history: After a Lashkar-sponsored assault on India's Parliament in 2002, the govt arrested many of the same people and formally banned the group.

Later the suspects were quietly released, and the organization re-emerged under the
name Jamaat-ud-Dawa." Since Zardari replaced General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, a master of duplicitous dealings with Washington, the army has stepped up attacks on Taliban militants in provinces bordering Afghanistan, the paper said.

ANI