India should apologise for sending Surjeet Singh to spy: Malik

Islamabad, Jul 1: Days after he claimed terror suspect Zabiuddin Ansari could have mounted a "sting operation" to carry out the Mumbai attacks from Pakistani soil, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik today demanded that India apologise for sending Surjeet Singh to spy in Pakistan.

Malik made the demand while addressing a news conference in London, the Pakistani media reported. He demanded an apology from India for sending Singh "for spying in Pakistan", state-run radio reported. Singh was freed last week after serving a life term in a Pakistani jail following his conviction for espionage in 1985.

Though Singh was given the death sentence, it was commuted by the Pakistani President in 1989. He was imprisoned for nearly three decades. During the news conference, Malik also rejected the assertion by Indian officials, including Home Minister P Chidambaram, that terrorist handlers had set up a control room in Karachi for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He contended that three Indian citizens, including Ansari alias Abu Jundal, were involved in the attacks.

Claiming that foreign intelligence agencies were involved in violence in Karachi to sabotage the peace in Pakistan's financial hub, Malik said, "India should tell how many extremists they have sent to Pakistan". Ansari was recently arrested in Delhi after he was deported from Saudi Arabia. Indian officials have said that Ansari had been travelling on a Pakistani passport.

Ansari has told investigators that he was present in the control room in Karachi from where Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers controlled the 10 terrorists who carried the Mumbai attacks.

PTI