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ISI chief to visit India to coordinate in investigation
The unthinkable has begun to happen in India-Pakistan relations. And Mumbai 26/11 is responsible.Reversing decades of policy, Pakistan agreed on Friday to send Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, to India to help with the investigations into Wednesdays terrorist strikes in Mumbai. Its a major change for India as well given that New Delhi over many decades has consistently blamed the ISI for spawning terrorism in the country. He (Pasha) will be travelling to India soon. The decision to send him was taken following a request made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to PM Yusuf Raza Gilani, a Pakistani official said by telephone from Islamabad. Zahid Bashir, Gilanis spokesman, stressed, This is a very positive development. My PM has directed me to make this statement to the press. A South Block official, who chose anonymity, concurred: This is a very big development. Whether he is coming in response to an invitation or a summons is not important. In Mumbai, investigating agencies have extracted considerable information from one of the detained terrorists, Ajmad Mohammad, said to be a Pakistani national from Faridkot. Singh informed Gilani that preliminary reports in the Mumbai probe point towards Karachi and called for increased intelligence sharing and cooperation in order to jointly counter terrorism. The Prime Minister also extended his governments full support for jointly combating extremism and terrorism and also offered help in investigating this incident, the statement added. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, citing preliminary information, suggested that some elements in Pakistan were responsible for the terror strikes in Mumbai. Speaking in Jodhpur, Mukherjee said that Pakistan had to live up to its promises made to India in 2004 and 2008 that it would not allow terrorists to use its soil for terrorist activities. Jo vada kiya, us ko pura kijiye. The Minister also called on Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in the country. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-28 |
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