WikiLeaks: India calls Pakistan's 26/11 probe 'positive'

Shivshakar Menon appreciated Pakistan's response to India's dossiers during a meeting with Richard Holbrooke.

Cables released by WikiLeaks state that Indian officials may not say it publicly, but privately they admit that Pakistan has made progress with regard to the Mumbai attacks probe.

WikiLeaks cable related to the investigation, dates back to scarcely three months after 26/11.

The positive assessment of Pakistan's contribution to the probe was made by Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke in a diplomatic cable created in February 2009.

Menon offered an initial GOI assessment of the Pakistani response to India’s dossier on the Mumbai terror attacks. Saying that it was “remarkable that we got this far,” Menon thanked the U.S. for its role in pressing Pakistan to act. Still, Menon maintained, Pakistan has further to go to bring justice to the perpetrators of the attack, and it is not clear whether Pakistan will continue on this positive track.

However, Menon at a media briefing in January 2009 had said that nobody had told India about the people arrested in connection to the case in Pakistan. He had also said that India was not impressed by Pakistan’s progress in the Mumbai attacks investigation.

Menon had also said that eventually every problem in Pakistan could be traced back to its military and after the Mumbai attacks India tried its best not to destabilise the civilian government in Pakistan.

Menon observed that the mood there had deteriorated over the past year, saying it had gone from euphoria after the return of a civilian government to worries over security and the economy. The U.S. has influence, however, “where it matters most,” Menon said, referring to the Pakistan Army, arguing that most of the problems in Pakistan can be traced to the capacity and intentions of Pakistan’s military.