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.

... contd.