Jul 20 2009
How Far Will Pakistan Go In Denial Of Obvious Truths
In new developments regarding the Mumbai, India attacks that took place in November 2008, the lone surviving gunman has pleaded guilty. After all the denials made by the Pakistani government that it did not harbor terrorist within its boundaries, truth has come to light.
Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, 21-year old Pakistani citizen who in May 2009 pleaded not guilty, has stepped up to the plate and confessed his participation in this assault which claimed 166 lives, shocking the court as well as his attorney and throwing suspicion over this confession in terms of why he made this confession and why the u-turn in his plea.
More importantly is the fact that after all the accusations by the India government that the terrorist came from Pakistan and that the government in Pakistan had allowed its land to be used to plan and initiate the attacks and all the denials of the Pakistani government that they did not harbor terrorist on its soil, confirmation is now held in the embodiment of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab.
In his confession, Kasab admits that he is from Faridkot in Pakistan. New Delhi based National Maritime Foundations director, Uday Bhaskar, said that this guilty plea should support Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s case that his nation must confront the truth about its militant ties.
According to a comment I received on one of my post regarding the Mumbai attacks back in December, in the past, India’s government has given the Pakistan government a list of names of people allegedly involved with terrorism and suggested that action be taken against them. India’s contention has always been that these people were openly moving about in Pakistan with no action taken against them by the Pakistani government.
All along, India has said that they had proof of these activities of terrorist living in Pakistan. This is why when the attacks in Mumbai originally happened, India came right out and accused the Pakistani government of being behind these attacks.
While Pakistan had condemned the assault on Mumbai, via the voice of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the government there had also demanded proof that these terrorist did indeed, come from within their borders. In light of the recent confessions of Kasab and his statements of how he came to be recuited, I would say they finally got that proof. Pakistan’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment.
However, truth is that even with the revelations of Kasab, some Pakistani government officials are hedging on the concept of cracking down on the terrorist element citing Kasab’s changing story as not credible enough to crack down on people based on the evidence provided by one person; this coming from Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.
Credibility as well as suspicion has been cast over the confessions of Kasab because when he was originally arrested, he confessed, later taking back the confession and saying he was coerced, pleading innocent in a May court appearance and finally shocking everyone with his confessions of guilt just recently. All along there were video tapes that caught him in action during the assault.
With the threat of the Taliban in Afghanistan getting out of hand, the availability of nuclear armament in Pakistan, I would say that it is time for Pakistan to face the facts that not only India has been aware of but the world has been aware of and that is the truth about its ties with al-Qaeda/Taliban militants. If this truth is not acknowledged it would seem that Pakistan’s credibility should be placed in question.
And that’s the way I see it!!!
Homer Simpson Patch
I wrote about the same headline today. I wrote about it from a totally different perspective though. This is a great article you wrote.