M A I N   N E W S

‘Records do not verify Kasab as Pak citizen’
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

One of the mobile phone Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) allegedly recovered from the lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Ajmal Kasab, was issued from Austria, a senior Pakistani official has claimed.

Interior secretary Kamal Shah, while talking to reporters here at the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) headquarters, said the NADRA records did not verify Kasab as a Pakistani citizen. He also expressed doubts over the authenticity of the letter reportedly written by Kasab to the Pakistani authorities seeking legal assistance, saying the language and contents of the letter did not match those of a ‘real’ Pakistani.

“They (Indians) have simply tried to make up a story and they have even failed in that too,” the interior secretary said. “Why did the

Indians not share the identity of others accused in the attacks?

They are talking just about Ajmal Kasab who was not even arrested from the crime scene,” he said.

Shah said according to the Indian authorities, the terrorists reached

India from Pakistan through a boat on the very day they attacked Mumbai. He asked how a foreigner could manage a terrorist attack of that scale within hours.

About the security arrangements for the month of Muharram, Shah said instructions had been issued to the provinces. He said law enforcement agencies would remain on high alert during processions of Ashura.

After Pranab, Chidambaram does Pak bashing

New Delhi: A day after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee did some plain speaking on Pakistan, Home Minister P Chidambaram today chided Pakistan for being in denial mode and refusing to accept evidence.

“What more evidence is required after captured terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab's father owned his son on a Pakistani television channel (GEO TV) show,” asked the Home Minister. — TNS