That Shaharyar Khan interview is fudging and lying to the core. Unfortunately for the India-Pak relations, the same elite Ganga-Jamuna Mussalman who planned the division, only partly migrated to Pakistan leaving the rest of their branch behind in Bharat. It is possible that their familial interactions across the border affected the trajectory of the relationship because most of the mohajir elites rose to very high positions in the GoP or the PA. Shaharyar Khan's case is a powerful illustration of this. Anyway, that is another issue.
Shahryar Khan conveniently dubs the ISI officers as 'rogue'. Today we know, courtesy Headley & Kasab, that at least four PA officers, Maj Iqbal, Maj. Pasha, Maj. Sameer Ali and Sajid Mir (possibly a Major too) were involved in 26/11. If these were rogue lower level officers, as Shaharyar claims, then it beats credulity. By all accounts, they have spent a considerable time planning the 26/11 carnage along with Headley and the LeT, which means that they should have neglected their official activities during this time. Would that have not come to the adverse notice of their superiors ? Would it not have raised suspicion among their colleagues if they were only rogues ? And, if they were indeed rogues, why is Pakistan simply sitting on the Indian dossier that detailed their involvement without taking any action ? Major Iqbal was able to procure services from other branches such as the Pakistani Navy and Army Signals for the 26/11 operation. How was he able to do so without raising suspicion if he was only a rogue ? How did he organize a tidy sum of USD 25,000 and in foreign currency too ? Headley has spoken of the great respect that Iqbal commanded even though he always came in civilian clothes. He was always accompanied by an Army driver and one or two Army orderlies, according to Headley. How could Shahryar claim Maj. Iqbal to have acted covertly when he moved about and interacted with the LeT so openly and displaying his authority ? Kasab had spoken of a 'General saheb' who accompanied Prof. Hafeez Saeed
saheb during the process of selection of the 10 terrorists for the operation. The PA invited and professor
saheb attended the iftaar even when an Interpol Alert was pending against him. Pakistan has so far displayed defiance of the will of the world as far as the LeT goes. Earlier, the French terrorist, Willie Brigitte, extensively documented how the ISI and the LeT were joined at the hips. The French Prosecutor and counter-terrorism expert, Jean-Louis Bruguière, who investigated the case of Willy Brigitte, has concluded that the LeT terrorist training camps were run by the Pakistani military with the possible knowledge of the CIA. Brigitte said LET was filled with soldiers from the Pakistani Army and the weapons were provided by the army. The high altitude LeT-PA training camp was protected by a number of army roadblocks. PA helicopters regularly supplied weapons and rations. His handler was also Sajid Mir, the same PA officer who masterminded the 26/11 as well.
If, as GoP continues to claim that the ISI is not a rogue intelligence agency and it only executes dutifully what it is ordered to do, it then flies in the face of Shahryar Khan's claims. If it is indeed a set of roguish officers who executed the 26/11, then the natural question to ask is "What is GoP doing about these roguish officers ?". Pakistan claimed, after the January 12, 2002 speech of Gen. Musharraf, that it had purged the ISI of those elements that got imbued with the jihadi mindset because of their involvement with the Afghan mujahideen. That in itself was a false claim. If indeed we assume it was true, then where did these new rogue elements now come from ? After all, the likes of Iqbal or Mir or Ali appear not to be that old to have been involved in the Afghan jihad or even in the 1996 Taliban uprising.
. I didn't waste any more time with this clown after this.
No No. From the viewpoint you have expressed you are 100% correct. But that is not the context in which I meant it.
in the other world; it signals enhanced capability on part of Pakistan’s terrorists to attack high security targets. As Prof Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University (we shall return to him later) says, “This is a blueprint for an attack on nuclear facilities.”
