Mumbai attacks aimed at igniting Indo-Pak war: Malik
By ANITuesday, June 29, 2010
LAHORE - Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that the November 2008 terror attacks, in which over 173 people were killed and over 300 injured, was actually aimed instigating a full scale war between India and Pakistan.
“The criminals responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attacks wanted to instigate a war between India and Pakistan,” The Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying.
In an interview to a private television channel, Malik reiterated that Islamabad has taken substantial action against Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, however, it was the judiciary which declared him free.
Malik avoided admitting Saeed as the mastermind of the 26/11 attack, and said Islamabad is ‘actively searching for the Mumbai carnage mastermind.’
“We intend to exchange intelligence information with the CIA and CBI,” he added.
Denying the role of country based militant organisations in terror strikes in India, Malik said that it is the Hindu extremists who are carrying out terror activities in that country.
He said that Pakistan is committed to root out militancy from its soil and has banned 29 extremist groups, including the LeT in the process.
Responding to a question, he said that prior to his arrest, LeT operative David Coleman Headley travelled freely between India and Pakistan and other countries, and Islamabad believes that it is necessary to find out who was patronising him. (ANI)
