‘16 Pakistanis behind Mumbai attacks’

“Besides this,two Indians — Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed — have been arrested and booked for their involvement,” he added.

Earlier in the evening,confusion prevailed on Gafoor’s statements made before the media at the Mumbai Police headquarters,which were interpreted to imply that a list of 16 wanted accused had been given to Pakistan,including some Indians who hailed from the north,and that a couple of them had prior criminal cases registered against them in India.

However,Gafoor later clarified: “My statements were misinterpreted sparking off a lot of confusion on whether some Indians are wanted accused. Besides the two Indians already arrested by us,there are no Indians named as wanted accused in the case.”

According to the police chief,the 26/11 probe has not revealed any assistance having been provided by the underworld in carrying out the terror strikes.

Hailing Pakistan’s reply as a great achievement for the Mumbai Police,Gafoor said: “For us,it is a great success as Pakistan has admitted that the terrorists involved were Pakistani nationals and that a terrorist attack on our country had its origins in Pakistan.”

Gafoor added that following this admission by Islamabad,the Mumbai Police would once again approach Pakistani authorities and urge them to claim the bodies of the nine terrorists gunned down during the attack.

Regarding a list of 30 questions on the attack having been submitted to India by Pakistan,Gafoor said: “We are yet to receive the formal reply that Pakistan has given on the attack. Once we receive this from the Centre,we will scrutinise it. We are in a position to reply to any questions that may be asked,but I am not in a position to comment on Pakistan’s questions at this stage.”

The Police Commissioner refused to divulge details regarding the roles played by Hamad Ameen Sadiq and Javed Iqbal,two alleged perpetrators of the attack who were named by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik.

A string of denials before the admission

Pakistan’s belated admission,that the Mumbai attack conspiracy was indeed hatched on its soil,follows the familiar pattern which has seen Islamabad denying all information provided by India before finally admitting it in view of mounting evidence. A look at Pakistan’s series of flip-flops:

ON ATTACKERS

• Dec 17,2008: President Zardari,in an interview to BBC,says there was no proof that the gunmen who attacked Mumbai came from Pakistan.

• Feb 12: Pakistan owns up,says has been able to identify and locate the attackers and their handlers.

ON KASAB

• For more than a month,Pakistan kept denying Ajmal Amir Kasab was its citizen.

• Jan 7: Information Minister Sherry Rehman says initial investigations had revealed that Kasab was a Pakistani.

ON DOSSIER

• Jan 13: “All that has been received formally from India is some information. I say information because these are not the evidence,” PM Yousuf Raza Gilani tells Parliament.

•n Jan 18: Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik says the dossier contains “leads and good clues”,and had “quite a lot of material”.

ON MASOOD AZHAR

• Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said Azhar had been detained,High Commissioner Shahid Malik claimed he was not in Pakistan,Foreign Minister Qureshi said he was in Pakistan but not in custody (“at large”). Latest inputs by Indian agencies suggest Azhar had been confined to his Bahawalpur residence in the wake of Mumbai attacks before being moved to NWFP in December third week.