© AFP 2016/ Lorenzo TUGNOLI
Mahmud Ali Durrani, former Pakistan National Security Advisor, admitted that Pakistan-based groups were behind the Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008.
Though Durrani said the Pakistan government had no role in the attacks, his admission has added heft to Indian claims that the Mumbai attacks were hatched and carried out by Pakistani terror groups.
"26/11 Mumbai strike, carried out by a terror group based in Pakistan, was a classic trans-border terrorist event," Durrani said at a conference on combating terrorism at a defense think-tank in Delhi.
The former Pakistan NSA also hit out at Jamat-Ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. "Hafiz Saeed has no utility, we should act against him," Durrani said.
Earlier this month, India had asked Pakistan to reinvestigate the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case and put on trial Hafiz Saeed, who is currently under house arrest in Lahore, under the anti-terrorism law.
New Delhi made this demand as a reply to Islamabad's request to send 24 Indian witnesses to record their statements in the case.
The Pakistan government on January 30 had put Saeed and the four others under house arrest in Lahore under the country's anti-terrorism act.
Hafiz Saeed carries a reward of $10 million and has been put under house arrest after the Mumbai terror attacks, but was freed by the court in 2009.
India and China have been at a stalemate over getting Saeed added to the United Nations' list of terrorists. China has struck down any Indian move to this effect.
R.C.