India calls Rehman Malik's statement on LeT operative Abu Jundal ridicuolous

NEW DELHI: India today rubbished as "ridiculous" Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik's claim that Mumbai attack handler and LeT operative Abu Jundal was an operative of a "very elite" Indian intelligence agency even as he stood by his remark.

"Such a statement is ridiculous. Jundal was working with the LeT in Pakistan's soil when the Mumbai terror attack was carried out," Home Secretary R K Singh told PTI in a strong reaction to Malik's statement.

Referring to Jundal, who was present in Lashar-e-Taiba(LeT) control room during the 26/11 attack in 2008 and was deported from Saudi Arabia recently, Malik today said Jundal had confessed that he was a known criminal, having been charged in many cases.

"He also worked as one of the sources of a very elite agency of India. Now, see, he has used agencies also and went rogue. Put it another way, you become a source, you become a double agent. While he is working, living in India, he might have gone rogue and then these three individuals go to Pakistan," he said delivering a lecture at Observer Research Foundation.

Malik said Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley had conspired with Al Qaeda terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, a retired major of Pakistan Army and three Indian terrorists -- Abu Jundal, Jabbiullah and Fahim Ansari -- and roamed freely and plotted India's worst terror attack.

Malik yesterday claimed that Jundal, who is is one of the key accused in the Mumbai terror attack case, was an agent of Indian intelligence agencies.

On Malik's remark that Indian agencies could have prevented the carnage, the Home Ministry in a statement said the main issue was that the Mumbai attack was conceived and planned and directed from the soil of Pakistan.

Pakistan did not take any action against these terrorist elements when the plan was being conceived and put into effect, it said.

The Home Ministry also said even after the Mumbai terror attack when full facts were known to the world, Pakistan was hesitating to take action against key conspirators and key operatives.