Ex-ISI chief admitted Mumbai attack planners were ‘our people’, claims Husain Haqqani

Pakistan’s former ambassador to US says Gen (retd) Shuja Pasha's admission came during his Washington visit in 2008


News Desk May 10, 2016
Pakistan’s former ambassador to US says Gen (retd) Shuja Pasha revealed it during his Washington’s visit in 2008. PHOTO: FILE

Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, has claimed that shortly after the 2008 Mumbai attacks the then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General (retd) Shuja Pasha had admitted the planners of the 26/11 attacks were “our people” but it was not “our operation”.

The revelation, which appears in Haqqani’s forthcoming book on India-Pakistan relations, recounts the visit by General (retd) Pasha to Washington on December 24-25, 2008, where the former spy chief is said to have made the startling admission, according to The Hindu.

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On November 26, 2008, 10 heavily-armed gunmen laid siege to the capital of India’s Maharashtra, including luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a hospital and a bustling train station, killing 166 people. The lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab was hanged in India on November 21, 2012.

At the end of his meetings with his CIA counterpart General Michael Hayden, Pasha had reportedly visited Haqqani at the latter’s residence. “Pasha said to me ‘Log hamaray thay, operation hamara nahin tha’,” Haqqani writes in the book — “India vs Pakistan: Why Can’t We Just Be Friends?

“General Pasha had also told General Hayden that ‘retired military officers and retired intelligence officers’ had been involved in the planning of the attacks,” Haqqani said while speaking to the Indian newspaper over telephone from Washington.

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The conversation between the chiefs of the ISI and CIA has been recounted in three books earlier — by then US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in her memoirs, Bob Woodward in his book “Obama Wars” and earlier this year by General Hayden himself in his autobiography, “Playing to The Edge”. However, this is the first time General Pasha’s words corroborating the ISI link have been recorded by a Pakistani official.

According to Haqqani, the link was confirmed by the fact that Pakistan’s government never prosecuted the accused. “The fact that we never pursued the case against the accused [officers] in the 26/11 case despite all the evidence that had been provided: not just by India, but by the US, by the American NSA, including intercepts of conversations during the attacks, that pointed a finger at us, at the Pakistan government,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Hindu.

COMMENTS (37)

Serious | 8 years ago | Reply @Sid: "Try Mumbai again, we dare" according to your media, Gurdaspur and Pathankot were also done by Pakistan!! Where were the surgical strikes or much-touted cold start?
VINOD | 8 years ago | Reply @Striver: Dear Sir, you have asked and said "Do we even have anyone working for the interest of Pakistan. This man Hussain Haqqani even as an Ambassador for PK never worked for the interests of PK." Sir, may I tell you these are the people who in spite of dangers of being misunderstood or getting killed are really and sincerely working for the interest of Pakistan. Read them in the editorials, opinion columns or blogs of newspapers of Pakistan or speaking on international forums. They are asking for upliftment, education, healthcare and prosperity with economic growth of people of Pakistan by spending more time and money. They stand against meaningless fight, hate and killing in the subcontinent. So please listen to them and the message.
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