India plans 7/11 dossier

NEW DELHI: New Delhi on Wednesday started compiling evidence of Pakistan-sponsored outfits’ involvement in terrorist activities here, particularly the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, for placing it before Islamabad.

To prepare the dossier on the involvement of Pakistan’s ISI and Pakistan-sponsored terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad in the train blasts, the Union home ministry is taking help of the Mumbai Police that have recently cracked the 7/11 terror plot.

Mumbai Police commissioner AN Roy and Anti-terrorist Squad (ATS) chief KP Raghuvanshi on Wednesday met Union home secretary VK Duggal to present him the evidence gathered by them during investigations into the Mumbai blasts of involvement at least 11 Pakistanis, including LeT’s commander in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur district Azam Cheema, besides the role of Pakistan’s ISI as chief mastermind of the attack. After the meeting, Mr Duggal discussed the evidence with foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. They are likely to finetune the same over the coming days before taking up the issue with Pakistan.

On Tuesday, prime minister Manmohan Singh had announced that Pakistan’s response to the evidence India gives regarding its involvement in the Mumbai blasts would be a test of its sincerity in controlling terrorism. “Whatever has been discovered (by Mumbai police), we shall share that information with Pakistan,” he told reporters in South Africa and added that Islamabad’s response would ascertain “how sincere they are in carrying forward the commitment I and President Musharraf have underlined” in the joint statement from Havana.

According to officials putting the evidence together, the relevant papers detailing the results of months of investigations into the 7/11 blasts that confirm the involvement of Pakistan’s ISI and aided outfits, would be presented to the Pakistani side through the proposed joint terror mechanism. “Let them deny their involvement after being shown the evidence,” an official pointed out. Mumbai police had last week said they had solved the July 11 train serial blasts that killed nearly 200 people, blaming Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI for masterminding the explosions which were executed by activists of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba with the help of SIMI.

Two of the Pakistanis involved are dead but the remaining are believed to have escaped to their country or could be hiding in India. Islamabad’s rejection of the Mumbai police claims and its refusal to hand over any suspects to India is unacceptable to New Delhi which wants this case to be the first test for the proposed joint mechanism.