After refusing for weeks to accept that Ajmal Kasab, the lone captured terrorist from the Mumbai attack, was a Pakistani citizen, the Pakistan government has finally conceded the fact. Since a FBI team is to visit Pakistan and investigate the killing of seven US citizens in the attack, Pakistan has no alternative. India had wisely permitted the FBI full access to the sites, personnel, records, and wireless intercepts relating to the terrorist attacks and therefore, Pakistan finds it difficult to refuse similar access.

The US government has no doubts about the origin of the Mumbai attack. The US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, in an interview to the Wall Street Journal on January 6, said: “there is some evidence, increasing evidence terrorism that may have originated from its territory.......They obviously have to take responsibility in two respects. One, they need to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the actual incident in Bombay. And secondly they need to deal with the problem of Taliban, al Qaeda and other militant groups like the LeT operating within their territory.”

Hadley also said “you can’t really solve Afghanistan without solving Pakistan. And that is why I think Pakistan is at the centre. Solving Pakistan won’t solve all of Afghanistan. But you won’t get where you need to be in Afghanistan if you haven’t solved that problem of the border areas with Pakistan.” He characterised Pakistan as the biggest foreign policy challenge for the incoming Obama adminisration, bigger than Iraq and Afghanistan. The significance of this formulation is not likely to be lost on Pakistani army.

... contd.