Durrani, a supporter of peace initiatives between India and Pakistan, told CNN that the evidence presented by India had showed that the terrorists had “Pakistani connections”.

“I think it probably would be true now that for example (Ajmal Kasab) had Pakistani connections. So one cannot deny there was zero link with Pakistan. How much, who all was involved, that we have to investigate,” Durrani had said, a few hours before Pakistan officially accepted that Kasab is its national.

While he said that New Delhi’s dossier “is not something solid,” he admitted: “But I would also say, some of the leads we got from India through other countries, that has been very helpful to our investigation...When the investigators get some leads, they work on it. We are going to work on it. We will need more things. We will need connectivity between Bombay and people here.”

A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s House said Yousuf Raza Gilani had sacked Durrani “for his irresponsible behaviour (of) not taking Prime Minister and other stakeholders into confidence and lack of coordination on matters of national security”.

Gilani told Pakistan’s Geo TV that he had sacked Durrani for commenting on the issue of Kasab’s nationality without taking him (Gilani) or the government into confidence. He said that Durrani’s “irresponsible” comments had affected Pakistan’s image and went against the government’s policies.

Ironically, the official line on Kasab was announced by Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rehman who issued a one-line statement this evening saying investigations had established the Pakistani identity of the terrorist being held in the custody of Mumbai police.” Her press secretary told The Indian Express from Islamabad that this had been revealed by investigations by Pak security agencies.

The admission — the first time that Pakistan has accepted the involvement of any of its citizens in a terrorist strike in India — follows sustained pressure from India, and the international community, which presented it with a wealth of evidence to show that Kasab, and the other nine gunmen who were killed during the Mumbai operation, had come from Pakistan. This admission came less than 24 hours after Pakistan had summarily dismissed this evidence as being “not credible.”

This clears the way for the FBI to launch its own investigations into Pakistan. FBI, which is legally obliged by the US law to investigate every case in which an American was killed anywhere in the world, has been helping the Indian investigating agencies in putting together the evidence in the Mumbai attack case.

The FBI team has already been given visas by Pakistan but in the absence of this admission it was finding it difficult to question Kasab’s family in Faridkot village of Okara district in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Pakistan’s Dawn News TV quoted an official source as identifying Kasab as the son of Amir Kasab and Noor Illahi. Incidentally, this fact had been brought to light weeks ago when the Observer reporter visited Faridkot village and established the identity of Kasab. At that time, Pakistani authorities rejected these reports, pointing out that Kasab’s name did not figure in Pakistan’s national register of citizens. Geo TV quoted its sources as saying that Pakistan would not give any legal aid to Kasab.