ISLAMABAD/BOMBAY, 3 October 2006 — Pakistan yesterday pledged to take action if rival India produced any evidence to show that Pakistan’s spy agency was involved in the Bombay train blasts in July. But a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman again denied claims by Bombay police that the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group helped launch the attacks that killed nearly 200 people.
“If India feels that it has some information that suggests links with some people here or some kind of connection, then yes we will take action and will help India in its investigations,” Tasnim Aslam told a weekly briefing.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said on Sunday that New Delhi would hand over evidence of the alleged links, but Tasnim said Pakistan had not received anything from India so far.
A senior Bombay police official, meanwhile, said yesterday that they had already provided to the federal government the evidence of ISI and Laskar-e-Taiba’s involvement in the blasts.
Refusing to disclose the names of the seven Pakistanis allegedly involved in the bombings, the police official demanded the Pakistani government hand over Lashkar’s Indian operations chief Azam Cheema and the seven accused in the blast. Cheema is alleged to have trained the Indian terrorists, the main being Faisal Shaikh, an activist of the Students of Islamic Movement of India, who played a vital role in the blasts.
“What we expect from India is to share the claimed evidence and information with us so that we can cooperate with them,” Tasnim said.
The Indian allegations, first made on Saturday, were an attempt to “divert attention from indigenous elements” engaged in terrorism in India, the spokeswoman said, adding that Bombay police were “propagandists.”
“This is all internal and this is yet another effort to externalize internal malaise,” she said. She said peace talks with India could resume in late October. “The likely time for the foreign secretaries’ review meeting is anytime after Ramadan,” Tasnim said.
Pakistan at the weekend strongly rejected the claims, which come at a time when the ISI is also under scrutiny from Islamabad’s increasingly disaffected allies in the “war on terror.”
President Pervez Musharraf admitted on US television on Sunday that rogue retired ISI officers may be supporting the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has also denied involvement in the bombings. The group is fighting against Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
To a question about President Musharraf’s book, Tasnim said the question should be directed to the president’s house, adding the book had nothing to do with the country’s day-to-day foreign policy.
Tasnim said Pakistan while playing its role in the war on terror arrested many suspects and handed them over to the United States for investigation.
She said money was paid to those operatives who worked hard in tracking down terrorists putting their lives at risk. The money, she said, was paid as an incentive.
Referring to the thousands of madrasas in the country, Tasnim said, “The government has made it clear that madrasas that impart proper education will continue to function but those teaching hatred will be shut down.”
