Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 13, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/File_NSA_confirms_ISI_role_in_Kabul_attack/articleshow/3227492.cms
India on Saturday confirmed that Pakistan's
infamous ISI had a definite role in the Kabul bomb attack on the Indian embassy.
National Security Adviser, M K Narayanan said
on Saturday: "We not only suspect but we have a fair amount of intelligence
(on the involvement of Pakistan)." In fact, intelligence intercepts have
been very specific on the ISI involvement. Even now, said sources, there is
fresh intelligence about threats to India's missions in Mazar-e-Sharif and
Jalalabad.
In a comment that perhaps reflected the sentiments
in the government, Narayanan was also quoted as saying that such acts of terror
need retaliation. "I think we need to pay back in the same coin. We are
quite clear in our mind," he said.
"The people of this country deserve to
know the facts rather than being carried away by people who make statements
that these are insinuations. There are no insinuations," he said.
This statement comes after many people said
that the Kabul attack should be treated on a par with the 2001 parliament
attack. Simultaneously, India has mounted a strongly worded attack on Pakistan's
peace deals with the Taliban in the UN Security Council.
"Those who perpetrated this act and those who train and protect them
and enable them to commit horrific acts of violence are no better than the
basest criminals," India's UN ambassador, Nirupam Sen told the Security
Council. Slamming the peace deals, Sen said mixed signals were going out through
"bargains for a temporary local peace while the rest of us contend with
the consequences of such a deal."
India, he said, would not yield to those who
commit these "barbaric acts" and to those responsible for "greater
villainy of sheltering and enabling terrorists."
Indicating that the joint anti-terror mechanism
with Pakistan had run its course, Narayanan was quoted as saying: "The
anti-terror mechanism was one piece of this picture. The hope was that in
course of time both sides would share whatever information they have and come
up with a holistic idea of what was going on.
"Talk-talk is better than fight-fight.
But it hasn't worked so far. In some way, we haven't arrived at the decision
that we should go for fight-fight so let talk-talk continue for the moment."
