As Indo-Pak Foreign Secretaries met in Delhi for talks aimed at ending the chill in bilateral ties, Pakistan on Thursday claimed “Indian networks” were behind the terror attacks in Mumbai and on the Samjhauta Express and Indian Parliament.
Without giving any evidence to substantiate the claims, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a terrorist assault of the magnitude of the Mumbai attacks could not have been carried out without the backing of an “Indian network.”
“I had said very openly during a press conference that such a major terrorist incident like the Mumbai attacks could not have happened without the involvement of an Indian network,” he told reporters after appearing in the Lahore High Court in connection with the hearing of a case.
“There was (an Indian) network when the Samjhauta Express was (attacked in 2007)... There was also (an Indian) network involved in the attack on Indian Parliament (in 2001),” Mr. Malik said. “These are three networks that have been identified as existing in India,” he claimed without giving further details.
Mr. Malik referred to comments by Home Minister P. Chidambaram about Abu Jindal, a suspected Indian handler of the Mumbai attacks, to back his contention about the involvement of an “Indian network” in the incident. “Time proved me right when Chidambaram said that Abu Jindal was involved. That means there is a network,” he said.
However, Mr. Chidambaram had only said that Indian authorities suspected Abu Jindal was an Indian.
