Mohammad Jamil
While the establishment exercised restraint on former prime minister’s campaign against the Army and Judiciary, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif felt emboldened and went so far as to sacrifice national interest. He conveyed an impression to the world that he is the last wall standing between terror-sponsoring establishment and free world. It gave to India a tremendous leverage on Mumbai attacks and endorsed Indian version. Pakistan may continue denying it and defending it, but Nawaz Sharif has done something Indian RAW was not able to do in a decade. The timing is crucial when FATF sword is hanging on Pakistan’s neck, it has become almost impossible to present defence against the grey list; and Pakistan may find itself in the black list. Furthermore, the interview came at a time when PTM, Achakzai, RAW, NDS have launched a very sophisticated and sustained assault on Pakistan.
Whereas PML-N leaders are trying to defend Nawaz Sharif that his statement has been misinterpreted, Nawaz Sharif himself sticks to his words. He referred to his similar remarks when he raised these questions in the meeting and there was Dawn Leak. It means that effort was made to malign the military by implying that the government wanted to take action against non-state actors but establishment was the hurdle. In his interview he stated: “Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?” One can infer from his remarks in the form of question that establishment allowed the terrorists to cross the border and kill 150 people. India has taken advantage of his statement, and entire electronic and print media in India and even in the West considered it a confession by three-time prime minister of Pakistan.
The question is when Nawaz Shrif was at the helm since May 2013, what steps he had taken to expedite the proceedings of the trial”. In fact, PML-N government had failed to inform the world that trial could not proceed due to non-cooperation from Indian side. India neither allowed access to the lone survivor of Mumbai attacks Ajmal Kassab who was hanged nor to the witnesses without which the court could not give any verdict. That point besides, many books have been published whereby most writers have expressed doubts about 26/11. A German journalist Elias Davidsson in his book “The Betrayal of India: Revisiting the 26/11 Evidence” revealed that many of the India’s claims about (Mumbai attacks) – the terrorist attacks in its capital on November 26, 2008, lack truth. Davidsson was of the view that Indian state’s investigation of the attacks was an eye wash to blame Pakistan.
He claimed in the book that the attackers used American telephone numbers when they unleashed the armed assault. The author further wrote: “It is highly plausible, that major institutional actors in India, the United States and possibly Israel, were complicit in conceiving, planning, directing and executing the attacks of 26/11; evidence of a deceptive investigation is even stronger”. He went on to suggest that Indian version was totally concocted, based on deceit and outright lies. Another academic, political commentator and American scholar Dr. Kevin Barret in an interview with Press TV had said: “The Indian government especially the extremist element has partnered with the elements of the US and Israeli Deep State in trying to smear the Kashmiri liberation struggle by creating false flag terrorism in India in which civilians are slaughtered. Those attacks have been proven to be a false flag by the elements of the Indian government itself in partnership with the United States.”
