''Non-state actors'' behind 26/11 Mumbai attacks, admits Nawaz Sharif

Lahore, May 12

Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has for the first time acknowledged his country’s role in allowing the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

In statements published in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, Sharif, Pakistan's disgraced prime minister who was banned for life from holding a public office by the country's Supreme Court after his name appeared in last year's Panama Papers scandal, questioned his country's policy of allowing "non-state actors" to kill more than 150 people in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

He also admitted that the country had isolated itself internationally.

"Despite giving sacrifices, our narrative is not being accepted. Afghanistan's narrative is being accepted, but ours is not. We must look into it,” Sharif told Dawn.

Without naming Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar's militant organisations—Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Jaish-e-Mohammad—operating in the country with impunity, Sharif said: “Militant organisations are active in Pakistan.

"Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill over 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can't we complete the trial?"         

The Mumbai attacks-related trials are stalled in a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court.

He further said: “It's absolutely unacceptable (to allow non-state actors to cross the border and commit terrorism there). President (Vladimir) Putin has said it. President Xi (Jinping) has said it".

US President Donald Trump has accused Pakistan of giving the US “nothing but lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

Sharif, 68, was disqualified by the Supreme Court for not being "honest and righteous" as he failed to declare in 2013 a salary he got from the company of his son in the UAE.

In February, the apex court also disqualified Sharif as the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Citing the military and judiciary establishment, Sharif further said: “You can't run a country if you have two or three parallel governments. This has to stop. There can only be one government—the constitutional one”.   

The relations between the military and Sharif’s government were at its lowest ebb in October 2016 when the latter told the former to act against homegrown militant groups or face international isolation.

The Mumbai attack case has entered into the 10th year but none of its suspects in Pakistan has been punished yet, showing that the case had never been in the priority list of the country that appears to be keen to put it under the carpet. 

A number of Pakistani witnesses both official and private testified and provided evidence against the seven accused, but the Pakistani authorities have been insisting on sending Indian witnesses for reaching a verdict in the case.

Some 166 people were killed in the attack carried out by 10 LeT men. Police and security forces killed nine attackers but lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and hanged. PTI