Author: Indrani Bagchi
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 2, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Terrorism_tops_agenda_as_Karzai_arrives_in_India/articleshow/3322416.cms
Introduction: Kabul Embassy Suicide Bomber
Hamza Is From Pak
While Afghan President Hamid Karzai spent
the weekend thundering away at Pakistan and its deepening terrorist roots,
India has taken a more measured response.
On Sunday night, as Karzai touched down in
New Delhi on a state visit, the tone of the visit has been set - terrorism
is on top of everybody's agenda. The difference between Manmohan Singh and
Karzai is that while the latter is talking about the Pakistan problem publicly,
India has chosen to give the message privately to Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza
Gilani. This is because Singh doesn't want to toss the peace process with
Pakistan or the ceasefire out of the window.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the bombing
of India's Kabul mission wasn't any ordinary terror attack. Apart from the
identity of the suicide bomber-22-year-old Hamza Shakoor from Gujranwala district
in Pakistan -the intelligence about the imminent attack was remarkably precise,
giving an indication about the centres of planning and execution. As information
about the attack filters out, it's becoming clear that the damage could have
been much greater. The original vehicle that was planned to be used to ram
into the Indian embassy was not an SUV but an oil tanker. That could have
created a fireball, which would have consumed much more than the Indian embassy.
This was scaled down to the Toyota Corrolla later.
In fact, after Afghan and Indian intelligence
revealed the Pakistani connection, NSA M K Narayanan spoke to his counterparts
in Washington to be told the same thing by top US intelligence officials.
When CIA official Stephen Kappes visited Islamabad on a secret trip to tell
Pakistan that the US knew the ISI was behind the Kabul attack, few were aware
that he was flying in from Kabul. Both India and the US had shared notes by
then on the source and nature of the attack and it was this information that
was presented to the Pakistanis.
In the past weeks, what has been unusual is
that it has been the US and Afghanistan that have spoken the loudest on Pakistan's
role in the embassy attack. This has been good for India-because it spreads
the credibility net much further. The Indian government is unlikely to scale
up its rhetoric against Pakistan too much, because it is reluctant to lose
the benefits of the peace process so soon.
