Sacked Pak NSA says Kasab revelation was based on security agencies' recommendation

Islamabad, Jan.8 (ANI): Sacked Pakistan National Security Advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani has said that authorities, including powerful security agencies, had already decided to confirm that Ajmal Amir Kasab was Pakistani, before he made the announcement.

"The security agencies recommended it and ... they repeated it to me," Durrani said. It had been decided yesterday that we would tell the world that he is a Pakistani because hiding that makes no sense," he said in an interview.

He stated that after Pakistan's acceptance of the fact that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai terrorist, belonged to Pakistan, tension between India and Pakistan would ease out.

Commenting on his removal from the post of NSA, Durrani said that he was sacked by the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani because he was ignorant about the Kasab issue. The Prime Minister happened to be ignorant. He was in Lahore and he didn't know about it. He was out of the loop," the Dawn quoted Durrani, as saying.

"I was dismissed because Gilani had not been informed about the decision to confirm Kasab's nationality, and the Prime Minister had 'felt the need to exert his authority," he added.

However, the official statement from the Pak PM office said: "Durrani has been sacked 'for his irresponsible behaviour for not taking the Prime Minister and other stakeholders into confidence'. (ANI)