Ghost of the Mumbai Attacks Will Continue To Haunt GHQ Rawalpindi, As Long As Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi — the Masterminds of the Attacks — Are Alive
By Maroof Raza
Nov 26,
2020
Twelve
years have passed since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008
(that have come to be known as 26/11 attacks). These attacks were planned and
orchestrated by the Pakistani military establishment, though they insist
otherwise. But apart from the capture of Kasab and the trail of overwhelming
evidence that confirmed Pakistan’s role in the attack, the clincher was the
admission in Washington by Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, who was Pakistan’s DG, ISI, at
the time of the attacks. This was made to General Michael Hayden, an ex-CIA
chief, who recalls his meeting with Pasha in his book Playing to the Edge, and
so does Hussain Haqqani, who was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US.
PLANNED ATTACK: Pakistan
maintains non-state actors are involved in acts of terror emanating from its
soil against India, but it needs to check such activities.
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Haqqani
recounted his meeting with Pasha on December 24-25, 2008, when he was serving
as the ambassador. He quoted General Pasha as saying: ‘Log Hamaray Thay,
Operation Hamara Nahin Tha’, in his book India vs Pakistan: Why Can’t We Just
Be Friends? Pakistan has since then worked hard to remove every evidence that
continues to expose the role of the Pakistani ‘deep state’. But the ghost of
the 26/11 attacks will continue to haunt GHQ Rawalpindi, as long as Hafiz Saeed
and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi — the masterminds of the attacks — are alive, never
mind the sham of their arrests, from time to time.
The targets
in Mumbai were chosen this time, with careful precision and thought, as has
come out in the admissions of David Headley in the book The Mind of a Terrorist
by Kaare Sorensen. Headley had done a detailed reconnaissance of the target
spots in Mumbai. Pakistan’s aim was to hit at the symbols of India’s economic
boom and to stall India’s growth. Mumbai fitted the bill, and though it had
lived through terror attacks in the past, the thoroughly planned attack on
India’s financial hub on the 26th of November, brought home to the Indians,
especially in the metros, that they too were vulnerable to the horrors of
Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism, a problem faced largely by the
residents of India’s states bordering Pakistan. As the 60-hour-long gun battles
and the operations that followed — as a counter to the terror attacks — with
television cameras covering the event from every angle, the ‘menace of
terrorism’ was finally brought home to India’s civil society and the corporate
world, that they would now also be at its receiving end.
Hafiz Saeed
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The public
outrage that followed this attack was enormous. Pakistan readied itself for an
Indian military strike. Had India responded with retaliatory air strikes — as
it did on Balakot after the Pulwama attack — since the IAF had reportedly
indicated that it had a 48-hour window to do so, relations between India and
Pakistan would have unfolded differently. There could have been a Pakistani
military response — as part of their denial strategy — but pressure from the
world capitals, especially the US (that too lost its citizens in Mumbai), would
have stopped the Pakistani army in its tracks.
But the Indian government preferred a measured
response, even though the then PM Manmohan Singh was to say: “There is enough
evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the
attack, it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan.”
And so, after a series of flip-flops, Pakistan’s dithering civilian regime —
under considerable US pressure — finally admitted that India’s claims, at least
partially, were right. But the event was soon overshadowed by India’s election
process and the cricket fever of the Indian Premier League season, and our
priorities changed!
But it
isn’t just India that said the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai were planned and
executed by the notorious Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with a lot of help from
Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies. It was confirmed by a RAND
Corporation’s Occasional Paper (OP-249-RC) of 2009. The overwhelming evidence
pointed to the Pakistan army’s doors — the military professionalism and
precision of the terrorists, data on their GPS phones, and maps used by the
attackers. But most importantly, the confessions of the one captured terrorist,
Ajmal Amir Kasab, gave away Pakistan’s lies. Kasab has since been hanged, even
though this writer believes — while sharing the grief of the victims — that
keeping him alive would have done a lot to remind Pakistan through his
admissions how he was trained, armed and unleashed against India, by minders in
the ISI and the LeT, as has been detailed by Stephen Tankel in his book on the
Lashkar-e-Taiba, Storming the World Stage, and in Saroj Rath’s book Fragile
Frontiers.
Moreover,
the manner in which LeT leader Hafiz Saeed was brought before the court last
week in fancy SUVs with bodyguards leaves no room for doubt that he is privy to
‘state secrets’ and his tribe of terrorists are still valuable assets of the
Pakistan army.
For India,
the 26/11 attacks created awareness that any of the major cities of India could
be targets. Cities that have foreigners, corporate houses, celebrities and the
common man were at potential risk anywhere now. In that sense, the 26/11
attacks were India’s 9/11 moment. And though the attacks on Mumbai captured
international media attention with about 180 people killed — including many
Westerners — terrorism had been a major political and security concern in India
since the 1980s.
First in
Punjab, followed by the turmoil in the Kashmir valley, and with terror attacks
in Indian cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ajmer
and Jammu, among others. The trail almost always has led to Pakistan. The
question is — are we any better prepared for the next attack?
Original Headline: 12 Years After 26/11, Pak Yet To Mend Ways
Source: The Tribune India
URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/ghost-mumbai-attacks-continue-haunt/d/124064
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