Right from 2008, India has held that Saeed was responsible as the key mover and motivator for the carnage and has been asking Pakistan to file a case against him to investigate his role in the attack
In what vindicates India's long-standing position, former Pakistan national security advisor Maj Gen Mahmud Ali Durrani said on Monday that Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, should be severely punished.
While Durrani accepted that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack originated in Pakistan, he claimed that the Pakistani establishment was not involved at any stage.
Durrani was Pakistan's NSA during the terror strike that left 166 people dead and thousands injured when 10 Pakistan-based fidayeens (suicide bombers) of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) struck Mumbai and took hostages at Taj Hotel and Chabad House.
"I can say with authority that no one on the ISI or the establishment was aware of the plan," said Durrani, speaking at the 19th Asian Security Conference organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), a Delhi-based government think tank.
Right from 2008, India has held that Saeed was responsible as the key mover and motivator for the carnage and has been asking Pakistan to file a case against him to investigate his role in the attack.
Durrani, who apparently lost his job of NSA for having divergent views on 26/11 and is considered close to the US by many, said: "Pakistan has no utility left of Jamaat - ud -Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed."
"I had also told the US that they are free to go after the Haqqani network inside Pakistan. We may have made some noises, but deep down, we will be happy if they were to be eliminated by the US," said Durrani.
Doing some plain talk, he blamed a corrupt police force, complicity of law-enforcing agencies, and the orthodox education system for the sordid state of affairs in Pakistan that have made it a fertile ground for breeding terrorism.
Blaming Pakistan for exporting terror, Afghanistan said nations must be designated as "terrorist state" failing which at least "individuals" must be designated as "terrorists" to combat terror more effectively."
"If we don't have the ability to designate states, let's hold individual accountable," Md Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's National Security Advisor (NSA) said address the conference called on Combating Terrorism.
Making a rather an open attack on Pakistan, Atmar said using one terrorist against another doesn't work. "National action" against terrorism in our region is failing and there is need to "address the fertile grounds" available to terrorist.
"We have told Pakistan that you act on our list we will work on your list but there has to be third party verification," Atmar said and added that there is "no good or bad terrorist"
Atmar warned that Afghanistan would use its special forces to attack terror sanctuaries.
"Our special forces are best in the region we have decided to go after the sanctuaries wherever they are," he said.
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